>:LOSAN( 


JBRARY- 


A  POLITICAL  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 


BY 

DeALVA     STANWOOD     ALEXANDER,     A.M. 

Member  of  Congress  ,  Formerly  United  States  Attorney 
for  the  Northern  District  of  New  York 


Vol.    I 
1774-1832 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY   HOLT   AND    COMPANY 
1906 


Copyright,  1906 

By 

HENET  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


'PUS 
A3  7 


V 


T 


PKEFACE 

The  preparation  of  this  work  was  suggested  to  the  author 
by  the  difficulty  he  experienced  in  obtaining  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  movements  of  political  parties  and  their 
leaders  in  the  Empire  State.  "After  living  a  dozen  years 
in  New  York,"  wrote  Oliver  Wolcott,  who  had  been  one  of 
Washington's  Cabinet,  and  was  afterwards  governor  of  Con- 
necticut, '^1  don't  pretend  to  comprehend  their  politics.  It  is 
a  labyrinth  of  wheels  within  wheels,  and  it  is  understood 
only  by  the  managers."  Wolcott  referred  to  the  early  decades 
of  the  last  century,  when  Clintonian  and  Bucktail,  gradu- 
ally absorbing  the  Federalists,  severed  the  old  Republican 
party  into  warring  factions.  In  later  years,  Daniel  S. 
Dickinson  spoke  of  "the  tangled  web  of  New  York  politics" ; 
and  Horace  Greeley  complained  of  "the  zigzag,  wavering 
lines  and  uncouth  political  designations  which  puzzled  and 
wearied  readers"  from  1840  to  1860,  when  Democrats  divided 
into  Conservatives  and  Radicals,  Hunkers  and  Barnburners, 
and  Hards  and  Softs ;  and  when  Whigs  were  known  as  Con- 
science and  Cotton,  and  Woollies  and  Silver  Grays.  More 
recently  James  Parton,  in  his  Life  of  Andretv  Jackson, 
speaks  of  "that  most  unfathomable  of  subjects,  the  politics 
of  the  State  of  New  York." 

There  is  no  attempt  in  this  history  to  catalogue  the  prom- 
inent public  men  of  New  York  State.  Such  a  list  would 
Itself  fill  a  volume.  It  has  only  been  possible,  in  the  limited 
space  given  to  over  a  century,  to  linger  here  and  there  in  the 
company  of  the  famous  figures  who  rose  conspicuously  above 
their  fellow  men  and  asserted  themselves  masterfully  in  in- 
fluencing public  thought  and  action.  Indeed,  the  history  of 
a  State  or  nation  is  largely  the  history  of  a  few  leading  men, 


360044 


iv  PREFACE 

and  it  is  of  such  men  only,  with  some  of  their  more  promi- 
nent contemporaries,  that  the  author  has  attempted  to  write. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  any  Commonwealth  of  the 
Union  a  more  interesting  or  picturesque  leadership  than  is 
presented  in  the  political  history  of  the  Empire  State. 
Earely  more  than  two  controlling  spirits  appear  at  a  time, 
and  as  these  pass  into  apogee  younger  men  of  approved 
capacity  are  ready  to  take  their  places.  None  had  a  meteoric 
rise,  but  in  his  day  each  became  an  absolute  party  boss ;  for 
the  Constitution  of  1777,  by  creating  the  Council  of  Appoint- 
ment, opened  wide  the  door  to  bossism.  The  abolition  of  the 
Council  in  1821  doubtless  made  individual  control  more  diffi- 
cult, but  the  system  left  its  methods  so  deeply  impressed 
upon  party  management  that  what  before  was  done  under 
the  sanction  of  law,  ever  after  continued  under  the  cover 
of  custom. 

After  the  Revolution,  George  Clinton  and  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton led  the  opposing  political  forces,  and  while  Aaron  Burr 
was  forging  to  the  front,  the  great  genius  of  DeWitt  Clinton, 
the  nephew  of  George  Clinton,  began  asserting  itself.  The 
defeat  of  Burr  for  governor,  and  the  death  of  Hamilton 
would  have  left  DeWitt  Clinton  in  complete  control,  had  he 
found  a  strong  man  for  governor  whom  he  could  use.  In 
1812  Martin  Van  Buren  discovered  superiority  as  a  man- 
ager, and  for  nearly  two  decades,  until  the  death  of  the  dis- 
tinguished canal  builder,  his  great  ability  was  taxed  to  its 
uttermost  in  the  memorable  contests  between  Bucktails  and 
Clintonians.  Thurlow  Weed  succeeded  DeWitt  Clinton  in 
marshalling  the  forces  opposed  to  Van  Buren,  whose  mantle 
gradually  fell  upon  Horatio  Seymour.  Clustered  about  each 
of  these  leaders,  save  DeWitt  Clinton,  was  a  coterie  of  dis- 
tinguished men  whose  power  of  intellect  has  made  their 
names  familiar  in  American  history.  If  DeWitt  Clinton 
was  without  their  aid,  it  was  because  strong  men  in  high 
position  rebelled  against  becoming  errand  boys  to  do  his  bid- 
ding. But  the  builder  of  the  Erie  canal  needed  no  lieuten- 
ants, since  his  great  achievement,  aiding  the  farmer  and  en- 


PEEEACE  V 

riching  the  merchant,  overcame  the  power  of  Van  Buren,  the 
popularity  of  Tompkins,  and  the  phenomenal  ability  of  the 
Albany  Regency. 

In  treating  the  period  from  1800  to  1830,  the  term  "Demo- 
crat" is  purposely  avoided,  since  all  anti-federalist  factions 
in  New  York  claimed  to  be  "Republican."  The  Clay  electors, 
in  the  campaign  of  1824,  adopted  the  title  "Democrat 
Ticket,"  but  in  1828,  and  for  several  years  after  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Whig  party  in  1834,  the  followers  of  Jackson, 
repudiating  the  title  of  Democrats,  called  themselves 
Republicans. 

For  aid  in  supplying  material  for  character  and  per- 
sonal sketches,  the  author  is  indebted  to  many  "old  citizens" 
whom  he  met  during  the  years  he  held  the  office  of  United 
States  Attorney  for  the  Northern  District  of  New  York, 
when  that  district  included  the  entire  State  north  and  west 
of  Albany.  He  takes  this  occasion,  also,  to  express  his  deep 
obligation  to  the  faithful  and  courteous  officials  of  the 
Library  of  Congress,  who,  during  the  years  he  has  been  a 
member  of  Congress,  assisted  him  in  searching  for  letters 
and  other  unindexed  bits  of  New  York  history  which  might 
throw  some  light  upon  subjects  under  investigation. 

The  author  hopes  to  complete  the  work  in  an  additional 
volume,  bringing  it  down  to  the  year  1896. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  March,  1906.  D.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAFTEa 
I. 
11. 
III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 


VOL.  I 

A  Colony  Becomes  a  State.    1774-1776 
Making  a  State  Constitutiok.    1777 
George  Clinton  Elected  Governor.    1777 
Clinton  and  Hamilton.    1783-1789 
George  Clinton's  Fourth  Term.    1789-1793 
George  Clinton  Defeats  John  Jay.    1792-1795 
Recognition  op  Earnest  Men.    1795-1800 
Overthrow  of  the  Federalists.    1798-1800 
Mistakes  of  Hamilton  and  Burr.    1800     . 
John  Jay  and  DeWitt  Clinton.    1800 
Spoils  and  Broils  of  Victory.     1801-1803 
Defeat  op  Burr  and  Death  op  Hamilton.    1804 
The  Clintons  against  the  Livingstons.    1804-1807 
Daniel  D.   Tompkins  and  DeWitt  Clinton.     1807 

1810 

Tompkins  Defeats  Jonas  Platt.    1810 
DeWitt  Clinton  and  Tammany.    1789-1811 


Banks  and  Bribery.     1791-1812     . 
Clinton  and  the  Presidency.    1812 
Quarrels  and  Rivalries.    1813 
A  Great  War  Governor.    1812-1815 
Clinton  Overthrown.    1815 
Clinton's  Rise  to  Power.     1815-1817 
BccKTAiL  AND  Clintonian.     1817-1819 
Re-election  op  Rupus  King.    1819-1820 
Tompkins'  Last  Contest.    1820     . 
vil 


PAGE 

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8 

17 

23 

37 

50 

64 

78 

94 

107 

115 

129 

147» 

158 
173 
180 
186 
199 
211 
219 
231 
241 
253 
263 
273 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXVI.  The  Albany  Regency.    1820-1832         .        .        .  .283 

XXVII.  Third  Constitutional  Convention.     1831           .  .    295 

XXVIII.  Second  Fall  of  DeWitt  Clinton.    1833     .        .  .312 

XXIX.  Clinton  again  in  the  Saddle.    1833-1834           •  .    331 

XXX.  Van  Buren  Encounters  "Weed.    1884          .        .  .    334 

XXXI.  Clinton's  Coalition  with  Van  Buren.    1825-1828  .    344 

XXXII.  Van  Buren  Elected  Governor.    1828        .        .  .357 

XXXIII.  William  H.  Seward  and  Thurlow  Weed.    1830  .    370 

XXXIV.  Van  Buren's  Enemies   Make   Him  Vice  President. 

1339-1833 382 

XXXV.  Formation  of  the  Whig  Party.    1831-1834        .  .    393 


A  POLITICAL  HISTORY 

OF     THE 

STATE     OF     NEW     YORK 


A  POLITICAL  HISTORY   OF  THE 
STATE   OF  NEW  YORK 


CHAPTER  I 
A  COLONY  BECOMES  A  STATE 

On  the  IGth  of  May,  1776,  the  second  Continental  Con- 
gress, preparing  the  way  for  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, recommended  that  those  Colonies  which  were  with- 
out a  suitable  form  of  government,  should,  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  war,  adopt  some  sufficient  organisation.  The  pa- 
triot government  of  New  York  had  not  been  wholly  satis- 
factory. It  never  lacked  in  the  spirit  of  resistance  to  Eng- 
land's misrule,  but  it  had  failed  to  justify  the  confident 
prophecies  of  those  who  had  been  instrumental  in  its 
formation. 

For  nearly  a  year  New  York  City  saw  with  wonder  the 
spectacle  of  a  few  fearless  radicals,  organised  into  a  vigil- 
ance committee  of  fifty,  closing  the  doors  of  a  custom-house, 
guarding  the  gates  of  an  arsenal,  embargoing  vessels  la- 
dened  with  supplies  for  British  troops,  and  removing  can- 
non from  the  Battery,  while  an  English  fleet,  well  officered 
and  manned,  rode  idly  at  anchor  in  New  York  harbour.  In- 
spiring as  the  spectacle  was,  however,  it  did  not  appreciably 
help  matters.  On  the  contrary,  it  created  so  much  friction 
among  the  people  that  the  conservative  business  men — re- 
senting involuntary  taxation,  yet  wanting,  if  possible  with 


2  A  COLONY  BECOMES  A   STATE         [Chap.  i. 

honour,  reconciliation  and  peace  with  the  mother  country — 
organised,  in  May,  1774,  a  body  of  their  own  known  as  the 
Committee  of  Fifty-one,  which  thought  the  time  had  come 
to  interrupt  the  assumed  leadership  of  the  Committee  of 
Fifty.  This  usurpation  by  one  committee  of  powers 
that  had  been  exercised  by  another,  caused  the  liveliest 
indignation. 

The  trouble  between  England  and  America  had  grown 
out  of  the  need  for  a  continental  revenue  and  the  lack  of  a 
continental  government  with  taxing  power — a  weakness  ex- 
perienced throughout  the  Revolution  and  under  the  Con- 
federation. In  the  absence  of  such  a  government.  Parlia- 
ment undertook  to  supply  the  place  of  such  a  power;  but 
the  Americans  blocked  the  way  by  an  appeal  to  the  principle 
that  had  been  asserted  by  Simon  de  Montford's  Parliament 
in  1265  and  admitted  by  Edward  I.  in  1301 — ''No  taxation 
without  representation."  So  the  Stamp  Act  of  1765  was  re- 
pealed. The  necessity  for  a  continental  revenue,  neverthe- 
less, remained,  and  in  the  effort  to  adopt  some  expedient, 
like  the  duty  on  tea,  Crown  and  Colonies  became  involved 
in  bitter  disputes.  The  idea  of  independence,  however,  had, 
in  May,  1774,  scarcely  entered  the  mind  of  the  wildest  New 
York  radical.  In  their  instructions  to  delegates  to  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  convened  in  September,  1774,  the 
Colonies  made  no  mention  of  it.  Even  in  May,  1775,  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  in  Philadelphia  cautioned  John  Adams  not 
to  use  the  word,  since  "it  is  as  unpopular  in  all  the  Middle 
States  as  the  Stamp  Act  itself."^  Washington  wrote  from 
the  Congress  that  independence  was  then  not  "desired  by 
any  thinking  man  in  America."' 

The  differences,  therefore,  between  the  Committees  of 
Fifty  and  Fifty-one  were  merely  political.  One  favoured 
agitation  for  the  purpose  of  arousing  resistance  to  the 
King's  summary  methods — ^the  other  i)referred  a  more  or- 
derly but  not  less  forceful  way  of  making  known  their  oppo- 

^  E.  B.  Andrews,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  172. 
"Ibid.,  p.  172. 


1774]  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  3 

sition.  Members  of  both  committees  were  patriots  in  the 
highest  and  best  sense,  yet  each  faction  fancied  itself  the 
only  patriotic,  public  spirited  and  independent  party. 

It  was  during  these  months  of  discord  that  Alexander 
Hamilton,  then  a  lad  of  seventeen,  astonished  his  listeners 
at  the  historic  meeting  *'in  the  Fields,"^  with  the  cogency 
of  his  arguments  and  the  wonderful  flights  of  an  unpremedi- 
tated eloquence  while  denouncing  the  act  of  Parliament 
which  closed  the  port  of  Boston.  Hamilton  had  already 
been  a  year  in  America  attending  the  Elizabethtown  gram- 
mar school,  conducted  under  the  patronage  of  William  Liv- 
ingston, soon  to  become  the  famous  war  governor  of  New 
Jersey.  This  experience  quickened  the  young  man's  insight 
into  the  vexed  relations  between  the  Colonies  and  the  Crown, 
and  shattered  his  English  predilections  in  favour  of  the  little 
minds  that  Burke  thought  so  ill-suited  to  a  great  empire. 
A  visit  to  Boston  shortly  after  the  "tea  party"  seems  also 
to  have  had  the  effect  of  crowding  his  mind  with  thoughts, 
deeply  and  significantly  freighted  with  the  sentiment  of  lib- 
erty, which  were  soon  to  make  memorable  the  occasion  of 
their  first  utterance. 

The  remarkable  parallel  between  Hamilton  and  the 
younger  Pitt  begins  in  this  year,  while  both  are  in  the 
schoolroom.  Hamilton  "in  the  Fields"  recalls  Pitt  at  the 
bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  amazing  his  companions  with  the 
ripe  intelligence  and  rare  sagacity  with  which  he  followed 
the  debate,  and  the  readiness  with  which  he  skil- 
fully formulated  answers  to  the  stately  arguments 
of  the  wigged  and  powdered  nobles.  Pitt,  under 
the  tuition  of  his  distinguished  father,  was  fitted 
for  the  House  of  Commons  as  boys  are  fitted  for  col- 
lege at  Exeter  and  Andover,  and  he  entered  Parliament  be- 
fore becoming  of  age.  Hamilton's  preparation  had  been  dif- 
ferent. At  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  a  clerk  in  a  counting 
house  on  the  island  of  Nevis  in  the  West  Indies;  at  sixteen 
he  entered  a  grammar  school  in  New  Jersey ;  at  seventeen  he 
"City  HaU  Park. 


4  A  COLONY  BECOMES  A   STATE          [Chap.  i. 

became  a  sophomore  at  King's  College.  It  is  then  that  he 
spoke  '*in  the  Fields" — not  as  a  sophomore,  not  as  a  preco- 
cious youth  with  unripe  thoughts,  not  as  a  boy  orator — but 
as  a  man  speaking  with  the  wisdom  of  genius. 

After  the  meeting  ''in  the  Fields"  patriotism  proved 
stronger  than  prejudice,  and  in  November,  1774,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty-one  gave  place  to  a  Committee  of  Sixty, 
charged  with  carrying  out  recommendations  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress.  Soon  after  a  Committee  of  One  Hundred, 
composed  of  members  of  the  Committees  of  Fiftj'  and  Fifty- 
one,  assumed  the  functions  of  a  municipal  government.  Fi- 
nally, in  May,  1775,  representatives  were  chosen  from  the 
several  counties  to  organise  a  Provincial  Congress  to  take 
the  place  of  the  long  established  legislature  of  the  Colony, 
which  had  become  so  steeped  in  toryism  that  it  refused  to 
recognise  the  action  of  any  body  of  men  who  resented  the 
tyranny  of  Parliament.  Thus,  in  the  brief  space  of  eighteen 
months,  the  government  of  the  Crown  had  been  turned  into 
a  government  of  the  people. 

For  several  months,  however,  the  patriots  of  New  York 
had  desired  a  more  complete  state  government.  All  admitted 
that  the  revolutionary  committees  were  essentially  local  and 
temporary.  Even  the  hottest  Son  of  Liberty  came  to  fear 
the  licentiousness  of  the  people  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
danger  from  the  army  on  the  other.  Nevertheless,  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress,  whose  members  had  been  trained  by  harsh 
experience  to  be  stubborn  in  defence  and  sturdy  in  defiance, 
declined  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  forming  such  a  gov- 
ernment as  the  Continental  Congress  recommended.  That 
body  had  itself  come  into  existence  as  a  revolutionary  legis- 
lature after  the  Provincial  Assembly  had  refused  either  to 
approve  the  proceedings  of  the  first  Continental  Congress,  or 
to  appoint  delegates  to  the  second ;  and,  although  it  did  not 
hesitate  to  usurp  temporarily  the  functions  of  the  Tory  As- 
sembly, to  its  great  credit  it  believed  the  right  of  creating 
and  framing  a  new  civil  government  belonged  to  the  people; 
and,  accordingly,  on  May  24,  1776,  it  recommended  the  elec- 


1776]  THE  PROVINCIAL  CONGRESS  5 

tion  of  new  representatives  who  should  be  specially  author- 
ised to  form  a  government  for  New  York. 

The  members  of  this  new  body  were  conspicuous  charac- 
ters in  New  York's  history  for  the  next  third  of  a  century. 
Among  them  were  John  Jay,  George  Clinton,  James  Duane, 
Philip  Livingston,  Philip  Schuyler,  and  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston. The  same  men  appeared  in  the  Committee  of  Safety, 
at  the  birth  of  the  state  government,  as  witnesses  of  the 
helplessness  of  the  Confederation,  and  as  backers  or  back- 
biters of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Among  those  associated 
with  them  were  James  Clinton,  Ezra  L'Hommedieu,  Marinus 
Willett,  John  Morin  Scott,  Alexander  McDougall,  John 
Sloss  Hobart,  the  Yateses,  Abraham,  Richard  and  Robert; 
the  Van  Cortlandts,  James,  John  and  Philip;  the  Morrises, 
Richard,  Lewis  and  Gouverneur,  and  all  the  Livingstons. 
Only  two  illustrious  names  are  absent  from  these  early  pa- 
triotic lists,  but  already  Alexander  Hamilton  had  won  the 
heart  of  the  people  by  his  wonderful  eloquence  and  logic, 
and  Aaron  Burr,  a  comely  lad  of  nineteen,  slender  and 
graceful  as  a  girl,  with  the  features  of  his  beautiful  mother 
and  the  refinement  of  his  distinguished  grandfather,  had 
thrown  away  his  books  to  join  Arnold  on  his  way  to  Quebec. 
These  men  passed  into  history  in  companies,  but  each  left 
behind  his  own  trail  of  light.  Where  danger  called,  or  civic 
duties  demanded  prudence  and  profound  sagacity,  this  band 
of  patriots  appeared  in  council  and  in  the  camp,  ready  to 
answer  to  the  roll-call  of  their  country,  and  by  voice  and 
vote  set  the  pace  which  achieved  independence. 

The  new  Provincial  Congress  met  at  the  courthouse  in 
White  Plains  on  July  9,  1 776,  and,  as  evidence  of  the  change 
from  the  old  institutions  to  the  new,  it  adopted  the  name 
of  the  "Convention  of  the  Representatives  of  the  State  of 
New  York."  As  further  evidence  of  the  new  order  of  things 
it  declared  that  New  York  began  its  existence  as  a  State  on 
April  20,  1775.  It  also  adopted  as  the  law  of  the  State 
such  parts  of  the  common  and  statute  law  of  England  as 
were  in  force  in  the  Colony  of  New  York  on  April  19, 1775. 


«  A  COLONY  BECOMES  A  STATE         [Chap.  i. 

By  this  time  the  British  forces  had  become  so  active  in  the 
vicinity  of  New  York  that  the  convention  thought  it  ad- 
visable to  postpone  the  novel  and  romantic  work  of  state- 
making  until  the  threatened  danger  had  passed ;  but,  before 
its  hasty  adjournment,  by  requesting  officers  of  justice  to 
issue  all  processes  and  pleadings  under  the  authority  and  in 
the  name  of  the  State  of  New  York,  it  served  notice  that 
King  and  Parliament  were  no  longer  recognised  as  the 
source  of  political  authority.  This  appears  to  have  been  the 
first  official  mention  of  the  new  title  of  the  future  govern- 
ment.* When  the  convention  reassembled  on  the  first  day 
of  the  following  August  it  appointed  John  Jay  chairman  of 
a  committee  to  report  the  draft  of  a  state  constitution. 

Jay  was  then  thirty-one  years  old,  a  cautious,  clever  law- 
yer whose  abilities  were  to  make  a  great  impression  upon 
the  history  of  his  country.  He  belonged  to  a  family  of 
Huguenot  merchants.  The  Jays  lived  at  La  Rochelle  until 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  drove  the  great-grand- 
father to  England,  where  the  family  continued  until  1686, 
when  Augustus,  the  grandfather,  settled  in  New  York.  It 
was  not  a  family  of  aristocrats;  but  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury the  Jays  had  ranked  among  the  gentry  of  New  York 
City,  intermarrying  with  the  Bayards,  the  Stuyvesants,  the 
Tan  Cortlandts  and  the  Philipses.  To  these  historic  fami- 
lies John  Jay  added  another,  taking  for  his  wife  Sarah  Liv- 
ingston, the  sister  of  Brockholst,  who  later  adorned  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  and  the  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam, New  Jersey's  coming  war  governor,  already  famous 
as  a  writer  of  poems  and  essays. 

Jay's  public  career  had  begun  two  years  before  in  connec- 
tion with  the  revolutionary  Committee  of  Fifty-one.  He 
did  not  accept  office  because  he  loved  it.  He  went  into  poli- 
tics as  he  might  have  travelled  on  a  stage-coach  at  the  invita- 
tion of  a  few  congenial  friends,  for  their  sake,  not  for  his 
own.  When  he  took  up  the  work  of  organisation,  therefore, 
it  was  with  no  wish  to  become  a  leader;  he  simply  desired 
*  Memorial  History  of  tTie  City  of  Neic  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  608. 


i~~^-76]  JOHN   JAY  7 

to  guide  the  spirit  of  resistance  along  orderly  and  forceful 
lines.  But  soon  he  held  the  reins  and  had  his  foot  on  the 
brake.  In  drafting  a  reply  to  resolutions  from  a  Boston 
town  meeting,  he  suggested  a  Congress  of  all  the  Colonies, 
to  which  should  be  referred  the  disturbing  question  of  non- 
importation. This  letter  was  not  only  the  first  serious  sug- 
gestion of  a  general  Congress,  placing  its  author  intellectu- 
ally at  the  head  of  the  Revolutionary  leaders ;  but  the  plan — 
w^hich  meant  broader  organisation,  more  carefully  concerted 
measures,  an  enlistment  of  all  the  conservative  elements, 
and  one  official  head  for  thirteen  distinct  and  widely  sep- 
arated colonies — gradually  found  favour,  and  resulted  in 
sending  the  young  writer  as  a  delegate  to  the  first  Continen- 
tal Congress. 

It  was  in  this  Congress  that  Jay  won  the  right  to  become  a 
constitution-maker.  Of  all  the  men  of  that  busy  and  bril- 
liant age,  no  one  advanced  more  steadily  in  the  general 
knowledge  and  favour.  When  he  wrote  the  address  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Canada,  his  great  ability  was  recognised  at  once ;  and 
after  he  composed  the  appeal  to  Ireland  and  to  Jamaica, 
the  famous  circular  letter  to  the  Colonies,  and  the  patriotic 
address  to  the  people  of  his  own  State,  his  wisdom  was  more 
frequently  drawn  upon  and  more  widely  appreciated  than 
ever;  but  he  may  be  said  to  have  leaped  into  national  fame 
when  he  drafted  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
While  still  ignorant  of  its  authorship,  Jefferson  declared  it 
"a  production  of  the  finest  pen  in  America." 


CHAPTER  II 

MAKING  A  STATE  CONSTITUTION 

1777 

It  was  early  spring  in  1777  before  John  Jay,  withdrawing 
to  the  country,  began  the  work  of  drafting  a  constitution. 
His  retirement  recalls  Cowper's  sigh  for 

" a  lodge  in  some  vast  wilderness, 

Some  boundless  contiguity  of  shade, 
Where  rumours  of  oppression  and  deceit, 
Of  unsuccessful  and  successful  war, 
Might  never  reach  me  more." 

Too  much  and  too  little  credit  has  been  given  Jay  for  his 
part  in  the  work.  One  writer  says  he  "entered  an  almost 
unexplored  field."  On  the  other  hand,  John  Adams  wrote 
Jefferson  that  Jay's  "model  and  foundation"  was  his  own 
letter  to  George  Wythe  of  Virginia.  Neither  is  true.  The 
field  was  not  unexplored,  nor  did  John  Adams'  letter  con- 
tain a  suggestion  of  anything  not  already  in  existence,  ex- 
cept the  election  of  a  Council  of  Appointment,  with  whose 
consent  the  governor  should  appoint  all  officers.  His  plan  of 
letting  the  people  elect  a  governor  came  later.  "We  have 
a  government  to  form,  you  know,"  wrote  Jay,  "and  God 
knows  what  it  will  resemble.  Our  politicians,  like  some 
guests  at  a  feast,  are  perplexed  and  undetermined  which 
dish  to  prefer;"^  but  Jay  evidently  preferred  the  old  home 
dishes,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  easily  he  adapted 
the  laws  and  customs  of  the  provincial  government  to  the 
needs  of  an  independent  State. 

^  John  Jay,  Correspondence  and  PuUic  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  68. 

8 


1777]  A  EESTRICTED   SUFFRAGE  9 

The  legislative  branch  of  the  government  was  vested  in 
two  separate  and  distinct  bodies,  called  the  Assembly  and 
the  Senate.  The  first  consisted  of  seventy  members  to  be 
elected  each  year;  the  second  of  twenty-four  members,  one- 
fourth  to  be  elected  every  four  years.  Members  of  the  As- 
sembly were  proportioned  to  the  fourteen  counties  according 
to  the  number  of  qualified  voters.  For  the  election  of  sena- 
tors, the  State  was  divided  into  ''four  great  districts,"  the 
eastern  being  allowed  three  members,  the  southern  nine,  the 
middle  six  and  the  western  six.  To  each  house  was  given 
the  powers  and  privileges  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  of  the 
Colony  of  New  York.  In  creating  this  Legislature,  Jay  in- 
troduced no  new  feature.  The  old  Assembly  suggested  the 
lower  house,  and  the  former  Council  or  upper  house  of  the 
Province,  which  exercised  legislative  powers,  made  a  model 
for  the  Senate.^  In  their  functions  and  operations  the  two 
bodies  were  indistinguishable.^ 

The  qualifications  of  those  who  might  vote  for  members 
of  the  Legislature  greatly  restricted  suffrage.  Theoretically 
every  patriot  believed  in  the  liberties  of  the  people,  and  the 
first  article  of  the  Constitution  declared  that  "no  authority 
shall,  on  any  pretence  whatever,  be  exercised  over  the  people 
of  the  State,  but  such  as  shall  be  derived  from  and  granted 
by  them."  This  high-sounding  exordium  promised  the  rights 
of  popular  sovereignty;  but  in  practice  the  makers  of  the 
Constitution,  fearing  the  passions  of  the  multitude  as  much 
as  the  tyranny  of  kings,  deemed  it  wise  to  keep  power  in 
the  hands  of  a  few.  A  male  citizen  of  full  age,  possessing  a 
freehold  of  the  value  of  twenty  pounds,  or  renting  a  tenement 
of  the  yearly  value  of  forty  shillings,  could  vote  for  an  as- 
semblyman, and  one  possessing  a  freehold  of  the  value  of  one 
hundred  pounds,  free  from  all  debts,  could  vote  for  a 
senator. 

But  even  these  drastic  conditions  did    not  satisfy    the 
draftsman  of  the  Constitution.    The  legislators  themselves, 
'Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  610. 
*Ibid.,  Vol.  2,  p.  610. 


10  MAKING  A  STATE   CONSTITUTION    [Chap.  n. 

although  thus  carefully  selected,  might  prove  ineflScient,  and 
so,  lest  "laws  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  this  Constitu- 
tion, or  with  the  public  good,  may  be  hastily  or  unadvisedly 
passed,"  a  Council  of  Revision  was  created,  composed  of  the 
governor,  chancellor,  and  the  three  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  or  any  two  of  them  acting  with  the  governor,  who 
"shall  revise  all  bills  about  to  be  passed  into  laws  by  the 
Legislature."  If  the  Council  failed  to  act  within  ten  days 
after  having  possession  of  the  bill,  or  if  two-thirds  of  each 
house  approved  it  after  the  Council  disapproved  it,  the  bill 
became  law.  This  Council  seems  to  have  been  suggested  by 
the  veto  power  possessed  by  the  King's  Privy  Council. 

The  supreme  executive  power  and  authority  of  the  State 
were  vested  in  a  governor,  who  must  be  a  freeholder  and 
chosen  by  the  ballots  of  freeholders  possessed  of  one  hundred 
pounds  above  all  debts.  His  term  of  oflSce  was  three  years, 
and  his  powers  similar  to  those  of  preceding  Crown  govr 
ernors.  He  was  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  and  admi- 
ral of  the  navy.  He  had  power  to  convene  the  Legislature  in 
extraordinary  session;  to  prorogue  it  not  to  exceed  sixty 
days  in  any  one  year;  and  to  grant  pardons  and  reprieves 
to  persons  convicted  of  crimes  other  than  treason  and  mur- 
der, in  which  cases  he  might  suspend  sentence  until  the 
Legislature  acted.  In  accordance  with  the  custom  of  his  pre- 
decessors, he  was  also  expected  to  deliver  a  message  to  the 
Legislature  whenever  it  convened.  To  aid  him  in  his  duties, 
the  Constitution  provided  for  the  election  of  a  lieutenant- 
governor,  who  was  made  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
Senate. 

The  proposition  that  no  authority  should  be  exercised  over 
the  people  except  such  as  came  from  the  people  necessarily 
opened  the  door  to  an  election  of  the  governor  by  the  people ; 
but  how  to  restrict  his  power  seems  to  have  taxed  Jay's  in- 
genuity. He  had  reduced  the  number  of  voters  to  its  lowest 
terms,  and  put  a  curb  on  the  Legislature,  as  well  as  the 
governor,  by  the  creation  of  the  Council  of  Revision ;  but 
how  to  curtail  the  chief  executive's  power  in  making  appoint- 


1777]  A  COUNCIL   OF   APPOINTMENT  11 

ments,  presented  a  problem  which  gave  Jay  himself,  when 
governor,  good  reason  to  regret  the  manner  of  its  solution. 

The  only  governors  with  whom  Jay  had  had  any  experi- 
ence were  British  governors,  and  the  story  of  their  rule  was 
a  story  of  astonishing  mistakes  and  vexing  stupidities.  To 
go  no  farther  back  than  Lord  Cornbury,  the  dissolute  cousin 
of  Queen  Anne,  not  one  in  the  long  list,  covering  nearly  a 
century,  exhibited  gifts  fitting  him  for  the  government  of  a 
spirited  and  intelligent  people,  or  made  the  slightest  impres- 
sion for  good  either  for  the  Crown  or  the  Colony.  Their 
disposition  was  to  be  despotic,  and  to  prevent  a  repetition  of 
such  arbitrary  conduct.  Jay  sought  to  restrict  the*  governor's 
power  in  making  appointments  to  civil  office. 

The  new  Constitution  provided  for  the  appointment  of 
sheriffs,  mayors  of  cities,  district  attorneys,  coroners,  county 
treasurers,  and  all  other  officers  in  the  State  save  gov- 
ernor, lieutenant-governor,  state  treasurer  and  town  officers. 
Some  members  of  the  convention  wished  the  governor  to 
make  these  appointments ;  others  wanted  his  power  limited 
by  the  Legislature's  right  to  confirm.  Jay  saw  objections  to 
both  methods.  The  first  would  give  the  governor  too  much 
power;  the  latter  would  transfer  too  much  to  the  Legisla- 
ture. To  reconcile  these  differences,  therefore,  he  proposed 
''Article  XXIII.  That  all  officers,  other  than  those  who,  by 
this  Constitution,  are  directed  to  be  otherwise  appointed, 
shall  be  appointed  in  the  manner  following,  to  wit:  The 
Assembly  shall,  once  in  every  year,  openly  nominate  and 
appoint  one  of  the  senators  from  each  great  district,  which 
senators  shall  form  a  Council  for  the  appointment  of  the 
said  officers,  of  which  the  governor  shall  be  president  and 
have  a  casting  vote,  but  no  other  vote;  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  said  Council  shall  appoint  all  of  the  said 
officers."* 

*"The  clause  directing  the  g-overnor  to  nominate  oflBcers  to  the 
Legislature  for  their  approbation  being  read  and  debated,  was  gen- 
erally disapproved.  Manj^  other  methods  were  devised  by  different 
members,  and  mentioned  to  the  house  merely  for  consideration.  I 
mentioned   several   myself,   and  told   the  convention  at  the  time, 


12  MAKING  A  STATE   CONSTITUTION    [Chap.  ii. 

This  provision  was  simply,  as  the  sequel  showed,  a  bung- 
ling compromise.  Jay  intended  that  the  governor  should 
nominate  and  the  Council  confirm,  and  in  the  event  of  a  tie 
the  governor  should  have  the  casting  vote.  But  in  practice 
it  subordinated  the  governor  to  the  Council  whenever  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Assembly  was  politically  opposed  to  him,  and 
the  annual  election  of  the  Council  greatly  increased  the 
chances  of  such  opposition.  When,  finally,  the  Council  of  Ap- 
pointment set  up  the  claim  that  the  right  to  nominate  was 
vested  concurrently  in  the  governor  and  in  each  of  the  four 
senators,  it  practically  stripped  the  chief  executive  of  power. 

V  ;  The  anomaly  of  the  Constitution  was  the  absence  of  pro- 
/vision  for  the  judicature,  the  third  co-ordinate  branch  of  the 

/  government.  One  court  was  created  for  the  trial  of  impeach- 
ments and  the  correction  of  errors,  but  the  great  courts  of 
original  jurisdiction,  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  as  well  as  the  probate  court,  the  county  court,  and 
the  court  of  admiralty,  were  not  mentioned  except  inciden- 
tally in  sections  limiting  the  ages  of  the  judges,  the  offices 
each  might  hold,  and  the  appointment  of  clerks.  Instead 
of  recreating  these  courts,  the  Constitution  simply  recognised 
them  as  existing.  The  new  court  established,  known  as  the 
Court  of  Errors  and  Impeachment,  consisted  of  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  the  senators,  the  chancellor,  and  the  three 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  or  a  major  part  of  them.  The 
conception  of  vesting  supreme  appellate  jurisdiction  in  the 
upper  legislative  house  was  derived  from  the  former  practice 
of  appeals  to  the  Council  of  the  Province,^  which  possessed 

that,  however  I  might  then  incline  to  adopt  them,  I  was  not  certain, 
but  that  after  considering  them,  I  should  vote  for  their  rejection. 
While  the  minds  of  the  members  were  thus  fluctuating  between 
various  opinions,  I  spent  the  evening  of  that  day  with  Mr.  Morris  at 
your  lodgings,  in  the  course  of  which  I  proposed  the  plan  for  the 
institution  of  the  Council  as  it  now  stands,  and  after  conversing 
on  the  subject  we  agreed  to  bring  it  into  the  house  the  next  day.  It 
was  moved  and  debated  and  carried." — John  Jay,  Correspondence 
and  Priblic  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  128.  Letter  of  Jay  to  Robert  E.  Living- 
ston and  Gouvemeur  Morris,  April  29,  1777. 
^Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  612. 


1777]  KESISTING    CONSERVATISM  13 

judicial  as  well  as  legislative  power.  The  Constitution  fur- 
ther followed  the  practice  of  the  old  Council  by  providing 
that  judges  could  not  vote  on  appeals  from  their  own  judg- 
ments, although  they  might  deliver  arguments  in  support  of 
the  same — a  custom  which  had  obtained  in  New  York  from 
the  earliest  times.^ 

In  like  manner  provincial  laws,  grants  of  lands  and  char- 
ters, legal  customs,  and  popular  rights,  most  of  which  had 
been  in  existence  for  a  century,  were  carried  over.  The  Con- 
stitution simply  provided,  in  a  general  way,  for  the  continu- 
ance of  such  parts  of  the  common  law  of  England,  the  stat- 
ute law  of  England  and  Great  Britain,  and  the  acts  of  the 
legislature  of  the  Colony  of  New  York,  as  did  not  yield 
obedience  to  the  government  exercised  by  Great  Britain,  or 
establish  any  particular  denomination  of  Christians,  or  their 
priests  or  ministers,  who  were  debarred  from  holding  any 
civil  or  military  office  under  the  new  State;  but  acts  of  at- 
tainder for  crimes  committed  after  the  close  of  the  war  were 
abrogated,  with  the  declaration  that  such  acts  should  not 
work  a  corruption  of  the  blood. 

The  draft  of  the  Constitution  in  Jay's  handwriting  was  re- 
ported to  the  convention  on  March  12,  1777,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  the  first  section  was  accepted.  Then  the  debate 
began.  Sixty-six  members  constituted  the  convention,  a 
majority  of  whom,  led  by  John  Morin  Scott,  believed  in  the 
reign  of  the  people.  The  spirit  that  nerved  a  handful  of  men 
to  embargo  vessels  and  seize  munitions  of  war  covered  by 
British  guns  never  wanted  courage,  and  this  historic  band 
now  prepared  to  resist  a  conservatism  that  seemed  disposed 
simply  to  change  the  name  of  their  masters.  Jay  understood 
this  feeling.  "It  is  probable  that  the  convention  was  ultra- 
democratic,"  says  William  Jay,  in  the  biography  of  his 
father,  "for  I  have  heard  him  observe  that  another  turn  of 
the  winch  would  have  cracked  the  cord."^ 

Jay  was  not  without  supporters.    Conservatives  like  the 

'Dnke's  Laics,  Vol.  1,  Chap.  14. 

''William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay;  Jay  MS8.,  Vol.  1,  p.  72. 


14  MAKING  A  STATE   CONSTITUTION    [Chap.  ii. 

Livingstons,  the  Morrises,  and  the  Yateses  never  acted  with 
the  recklessness  of  despair.  They  had  well-formed  notions 
of  a  popular  government,  and  their  replies  to  proposed 
changes  broke  the  force  of  the  opposition.  But  Jay,  relying 
more  upon  his  own  policy,  prudently  omitted  several  pro- 
visions that  seemed  to  him  important,  and  when  discussion 
developed  their  need,  he  shrewdly  introduced  them  as  amend- 
ments. Upon  one  question,  however,  a  prolonged  and  spir- 
ited debate  occurred.  This  centred  upon  the  freedom  of 
conscience.  The  Dutch  of  New  Netherland,  almost  alone 
among  the  Colonies,  had  never  indulged  in  fanaticism,  and 
the  Constitution,  breathing  the  spirit  of  their  toleration,  de- 
clared that  "the  free  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  religious  pro- 
fession and  worship  without  diminution  or  preference  shall 
forever  hereafter  be  allowed  within  the  State  to  all  man- 
kind." Jay  did  not  dissent  from  this  sentiment;  but,  as  a 
descendant  of  the  persecuted  Huguenots,  he  wished  to  except 
Roman  Catholics  until  they  should  deny  the  Pope's  author- 
ity to  absolve  citizens  from  their  allegiance  and  to  grant 
spiritual  absolution,  and  he  forcefully  insisted  upon  and  se- 
cured the  restriction  that  ''the  liberty  of  conscience  hereby 
granted  shall  not  be  so  construed  as  to  excuse  acts  of  licen- 
tiousness or  justify  practices  inconsistent  with  the  safety  of 
the  State."  The  question  of  the  naturalisation  of  for- 
eigners renewed  the  contention.  Jay's  Huguenot  blood 
was  still  hot,  and  again  he  exacted  the  limitation  that 
all  persons,  before  naturalisation,  shall  "abjure  and  renounce 
all  allegiance  to  all  and  every  foreign  king,  prince,  po- 
tentate, and  state,  in  all  matters  ecclesiastical  as  well  as 
civil." 

Jay  intended  reporting  other  amendments — one  requiring 
a  similar  renunciation  on  the  part  of  all  persons  holding  of- 
fice, and  one  abolishing  domestic  slavery.  But  before  the 
convention  adjourned  he  was,  unfortunately,  summoned  to 
the  bedside  of  his  dying  mother.  Otherwise,  New  York 
would  probably  have  had  the  distinction  of  being  first  to  set 
the  example  of  freedom.    "I  should  have  been  for  a  clause 


1777]  APPROVED    IN    NEW   ENGLAND  15 

against  the  continuance  of  domestic  slavery,"  he  said, 
in  a  letter  objecting  to  what  occurred  after  his  forced 
retirement.^ 

Although  the  Constitution  was  under  consideration  for 
more  than  a  month,  haste  characterised  the  close  of  the 
convention's  deliberations.  As  soon  as  Jay  left,  every  one 
seemed  eager  to  get  away,  and  on  Sunday,  April  20,  1777, 
the  Constitution  was  adopted  as  a  whole  practically  as  he 
left  it,  and  a  committee  appointed  to  report  a  plan  for  es- 
tablishing a  government  under  it.  Unlike  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts,  it  was  not  submitted  to  the  voters  for  rati- 
fication. The  fact  that  the  delegates  themselves  had  been 
elected  by  the  people  seemed  suflScient,  and  two  days  after 
its  passage,  the  secretary  of  the  convention,  standing  upon 
a  barrel  in  front  of  the  courthouse  at  Kingston,  published 
it  to  the  world  by  reading  it  aloud  to  those  who  happened 
to  be  present.  As  it  became  known  to  the  country,  it  was 
cordially  approved  .as  the  most  excellent  and  liberal  of  the 
American  constitutions.  ''It  is  approved  even  in  New  Eng- 
land," wrote  Jay,  "where  few  New  York  productions  have 
credit."^ 

The  absence  of  violent  democratic  innovations  was  the 
Constitution's  remarkable  feature.  Although  a  product  of 
the  Revolution,  framed  to  meet  the  necessities  growing  out 
of  that  great  event,  its  general  provisions  were  decidedly 
conservative.  The  right  of  suffrage  was  so  restricted  that  as 
late  as  1790  only  1.303  of  the  13,330  male  residents  of  New  'n 
York  City  possessed  sufficient  property  to  entitle  them  to  / 
vote  for  governor.  Even  the  Court  of  Chancery  remained 
undisturbed,  notwithstanding  royal  governors  had  created 
it  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  popular  assembly.  But 
despite  popular  dissatisfaction,  which  evidenced  itself  in 
earnest  prayers  and  ugly  protests,  the  instrument,  so  rudely 

°  John  Jay,  Correspondence  and  Public  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  126.  "Such 
a  recommendation  was  introduced  by  Gouverneur  Morris  and  passed, 
but  subsequently  omitted." — Ibid.,  p.  136,  note. 

» Ibid.,  p.  140. 


16  MAKING  A  STATE   CONSTITUTION     [Chap.  ii. 

and  hastily  published  on  April  22,  1777,  remained  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  State  for  forty-four  years. 

Before  adjournment  the  convention,  adopting  the  report 
of  its  committee  for  the  organisation  of  a  state  government, 
appointed  Robert  R.  Livingston,  chancellor ;  John  Jay,  chief 
justice  of  the  Supreme  Court;  Robert  Yates,  Jr.,  and  John 
♦Sloss  Hobart,  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Egbert 
Benson,  attorney-general.  To  a  Council  of  Safety,  composed 
of  fifteen  delegates,  with  John  Morin  Scott,  chairman,  were 
confided  all  the  powers  of  the  State  until  superseded  by  a 
regularly  elected  governor. 


CHAPTER  III 
GEORGE  CLINTON  ELECTED  GOVERNOR 

1777 

After  the  constitutional  convention  adjourned  in  May, 
1777,  the  Council  of  Safety  immediately  ordered  the  election 
of  a  governor,  lieutenant-governor,  and  members  of  the  Leg- 
islature. The  selection  of  a  governor  by  ballot  interested 
the  people.  Although  freeholders  who  could  vote  represented 
only  a  small  part  of  the  male  population,  patriots  of  every 
class  rejoiced  in  the  substitution  of  a  neighbour  for  a  lord 
across  the  sea.  And  all  had  a  decided  choice.  Of  those  sug- 
gested as  fittest  as  well  as  most  experienced  Philip  Schuyler, 
John  Morin  Scott,  John  Jay  and  George  Clinton  were  the  fa- 
vourites. Just  then  Schuyler  was  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
province,  watching  Burgoyne  and  making  provision  to  meet 
the  invasion  of  the  Mohawk  Valley ;  George  Clinton,  in  com- 
mand on  the  Hudson,  was  equally  watchful  of  the  move- 
ments of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  whose  junction  with  Burgoyne 
meant  the  destruction  of  Forts  Clinton  and  Montgomery  at 
the  lower  entrance  to  the  Highlands ;  while  Scott  and  Jay, 
as  members  of  the  Council  of  Safety,  were  directing  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  new  State. 

Schuyler's  public  career  began  in  the  Provincial  Assem- 
bly of  New  York  in  1768.  He  represented  the  people's  inter- 
ests with  great  boldness,  and  when  the  Assembly  refused  to 
thank  the  delegates  of  the  first  Continental  Congress,  or  to 
appoint  others  to  a  second  Congress,  he  aided  in  the  organi- 
sation of  the  Provincial  Congress  which  usurped  the  Assem- 
bly's functions  and  put  all  power  into  the  hands  of  the  peo- 
ple. Chancellor  Kent  thought  that  "in  acuteness  of  intellect, 

17 


18  CLINTON  ELECTED  GOVEKNOK      [Chap.  hi. 

profound  thought,  indefatigable  activity,  exhaustless  energy, 
pure  patriotism,  and  persevering  and  intrepid  public  efforts, 
Schuyler  had  no  superior;"  and  Daniel  Webster  declared 
him  "second  only  to  Washington  in  the  services  he  rendered 
the  country."^  liut  there  was  in  Schuyler's  make-up  a  touch 
of  arrogance  that  displayed  itself  in  letters  as  well  as  in 
manners.  The  soldierly  qualities  that  made  him  a  commander 
did  not  qualify  him  for  public  place  dependent  upon  the  suf- 
frage of  men.  People  respected  but  did  not  love  him.  If 
they  were  indignant  that  Gates  succeeded  him,  they  did  not 
want  him  to  govern  them,  however  much  it  may  have  been 
in  his  heart  to  serve  them  faithfully. 

John  Morin  Scott  represented  the  radical  element  among 
the  patriots.  By  profession  he  was  an  able  and  wealthy 
lawyer;  by  occupation  a  patriotic  agitator.  John  Adams, 
who  breakfasted  with  him,  speaks  of  his  country  residence 
three  miles  out  of  town  as  ''an  elegant  seat,  with  the  Hudson 
just  behind  the  house,  and  a  rural  prospect  all  around  him." 
But  the  table  seems  to  have  made  a  deeper  impression  upon 
the  Yankee  patriot  than  the  picturesque  scenery  of  the  river. 
"A  more  elegant  breakfast  I  never  saw — rich  plate,  a  very 
large  silver  coffee-pot,  a  very  large  silver  teapot,  napkins  of 
the  very  finest  materials,  toast  and  bread  and  butter  in  great 
perfection.  Afterwards  a  plate  of  beautiful  peaches,  another 
of  pears,  another  of  plums,  and  a  musk  melon."  As  a  part- 
ing salute,  this  lover  of  good  things  spoke  of  his  host  as  '*a 
sensible  man,  one  of  the  readiest  speakers  upon  the  conti- 
nent, but  not  very  polite."^  This  is  what  the  Tories  thought. 
According  to  Jones,  the  Tory  historian,  Scott  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  graduate  at  Yale — "a  college  remarkable  for  its 

*  While  in  command  of  the  northern  department,  embracing-  the 
province  of  New  York,  Schuyler  was  known  as  "Great  Eye,"  so 
watchful  did  he  become  of  the  enemy's  movements;  and  although 
subsequently,  throug-h  slander  and  intrigue,  superseded  by  Horatio 
Gates,  history  has  credited  Burgoyne's  surrender  largely  to  his 
wisdom  and  patriotism,  and  has  branded  Gates  with  incompetency, 
in  spite  of  the  latter's  gold  medal  and  the  thanks  of  Congress. 

'John  Adams,  Life  and  Works,  Vol.  2,  p.  349  (Diary). 


1777]  JOHN  MORIN  SCOTT  J  9 

republican  principles  and  religious  intolerance,"  he  says, 
and  to  belong  to  a  triumvirate  whose  purpose  was  ''to  pull 
down  church  and  state,  and  to  raise  their  own  government 
upon  the  ruins."^ 

Scott,  no  doubt,  was  sometimes  mistaken  in  the  proper 
course  to  pursue,  but  he  was  always  right  from  his  point  of 
view,  and  his  point  of  view  was  bitter  hostility  to  English 
misrule.  Whatever  he  did  he  did  with  all  the  resistless  en- 
ergy of  a  man  still  in  his  forties.  He  was  of  distinguished 
ancestry.  His  great-great-grandfather.  Sir  John  Scott,  bar- 
onet, of  Ancrum,  Scotland,  had  been  a  stalwart  Whig  before 
the  revolution  of  1688,  and  his  grandfather,  John  Scott,  com- 
ing to  New  York  in  1702,  had  commanded  Fort  Hunter,  a 
stronghold  on  the  Mohawk.  Both  were  remarkable  men. 
Tory  blood  was  foreign  to  their  veins.  Young  John,  breath- 
ing the  air  of  independence,  scorned  to  let  his  life  and  prop- 
erty depend  upon  the  pleasure  of  British  lords  and  a  British 
ministry,  or  to  be  excluded  from  the  right  of  trial  by  a  jury 
of  his  neighbours,  or  of  taxation  by  his  own  representatives. 
In  1775  he  went  to  the  Continental  Congress;  in  1776, 
to  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  York;  and  later 
he  participated  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island  as  a 
brigadier-general.  After  the  adoption  of  the  State  Con- 
stitution he  became  secretary  of  state,  and  from  1780  to 
1783  served  in  the  Continental  Congress.  He  lived  long 
enough  to  see  his  country  free,  although  his  strenuous  life 
ended  at  fifty-four. 

George  Clinton  possessed  more  popular  manners  than 
either  Schuyler  or  Scott.  Indeed,  it  has  been  given  to  few 
men  in  New  York  to  inspire  more  passionate  personal  at- 
tachment than  George  Clinton.  A  patriot  never  lived  who 
was  more  bitter  in  his  hostility  to  English  misrule,  or  more 
uncompromising  in  his  opposition  to  toryism.  He  was  a 
typical  Irishman — intolerant,  often  domineering,  sometimes 
petulant,  and  occasionally  too  quick  to  take  ofifence,  but  he 
was  magnetic  and  generous,  easily  putting  himself  in  touch 
^  Thomas  Jones,    History  of  Neic  York,  Vol.  1,  p.  3. 


20  CLINTON  ELECTED  GOVERNOR      [Chap.  hi. 

with  those  about  him,  and  ready,  without  hesitation,  to 
help  the  poorest  and  carry  the  weakest.  This  was  the  kind 
of  man  the  people  wanted  for  governor. 

Clinton  came  of  a  good  family.  His  great-grandfather,  a 
too  devoted  adherent  of  Charles  I.,  found  it  healthful  to 
wander  about  Europe,  and  finally  to  settle  in  the  north  of 
Ireland,  out  of  reach  of  Cromwell's  soldiers,  and  out  of  sight 
of  his  ancestral  patrimony.  By  the  time  Charles  II.  came 
to  the  throne,  the  estate  was  lost,  and  this  friend  of  the 
Stuarts  lived  on  in  the  quiet  of  his  secluded  home,  and  after 
him,  his  son;  but  the  grandson,  stirred  by  the  blood  of  a 
Puritan  mother,  exchanged  the  North  Sea  shore  for  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson,  where  his  son  breathed  the  air  that 
made  him  a  leading  spirit  in  the  war  for  American  indepen- 
dence. Clinton's  youth  is  one  record  of  precocity.  Before 
the  war  began  he  passed  through  a  long,  a  varied,  even  a 
brilliant  career,  climbing  to  the  highest  position  in  the  State 
before  he  had  reached  the  age  when  most  men  begin  to  fill 
responsible  places.  At  fifteen  he  manned  an  American  pri- 
vateer; at  sixteen,  as  a  lieutenant,  he  accompanied  his 
father  in  a  successful  assault  upon  Fort  Frontenac;  at 
twenty -six,  in  the  colonial  legislature,  he  became  the  rival 
of  Philip  Schuyler  in  the  leadership  and  influence  that  en- 
abled a  patriotic  minority  to  resist  the  aggressions  of  Great 
Britain ;  at  thirty-six,  holding  a  seat  in  the  Second  Continen- 
tal Congress,  he  voted  for  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  commanded  a  brigade  of  Ulster  County  militia. 

The  election  which  occurred  in  June  was  not  preceded  by 
a  campaign  of  speaking.  People  were  too  busy  fighting  to 
supplement  a  campaign  of  bullets  with  one  of  words.  But 
Jay  sent  out  an  electioneering  letter  recommending  Philip 
Schuyler  for  governor  and  George  Clinton  for  lieutenant- 
governor.  This  was  sufficient  to  secure  for  these  candidates 
the  conservative  vote.  It  showed,  too,  Jay's  unconcern  for 
high  place.  He  was  modest  even  to  diffidence,  an  infirmity 
that  seems  to  have  depressed  him  at  times  as  much  as  it 
did  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  in  a  later  day. 


1777]  JAY  AND  SCHUYLER  SURPRISED  21 

The  returns  were  made  to  the  Council  of  Safety,  and  Jay 
carefuJly  scanned  them  as  they  came  in.  On  June  20  he 
wrote  Schuyler :  "The  elections  in  the  middle  district  have 
taken  such  a  turn  as  that,  if  a  tolerable  degree  of  unanimity 
should  prevail  in  the  upper  counties,  there  will  be  little 
doubt  of  having,  ere  long,  the  honour  of  addressing  a  letter  to 
your  excellency.  Clinton,  being  pushed  for  both  offices,  may 
have  neither;  he  has  many  votes  for  the  first  and  not  a  few 
for  the  second.  Scott,  however,  has  carried  a  number  from 
him,  and  you  are  by  no  means  without  a  share.  You  may 
rely  on  receiving  by  express  the  earliest  notice  of  the  event 
alluded  to."*  When  the  voters  from  Orange  and  other  south- 
ern counties  came  in,  however,  Jay  discovered  that  the  re- 
sult did  not  follow  the  line  either  of  his  wishes  or  of  his 
suggestions.  On  the  contrary,  Clinton  was  elected  to  both 
offices  by  a  considerable  plurality.^ 

The  result  of  the  election  proved  a  great  surprise  and 
something  of  a  humiliation  to  the  ruling  classes.  ''Gen. 
Clinton,  I  am  informed,  has  a  majority  of  votes  for  the 
Chair,"  Schuyler  wrote  to  Jay,  on  June  30.  *'If  so  he  has 
played  his  cards  better  than  was  expected."®  A  few  days 
later,  after  confirmation  of  the  rumour,  he  betrayed  consid- 
erable feeling.  "Clinton's  family  and  connections  do  not 
entitle  him  to  so  distinguished  a  pre-eminence,"  he  wrote, 
showing  that  Revolutionary  heroes  were  already  divided 
into  more  democratic  and  less  democratic  whigs,  and  more 
aristocratic  and  less  aristocratic  patriots;  but  the  division 
was  still  in  the  mind  rather  than  in  any  settled  policy.    "He 

*  John  Jay,    Correspondence  and  Public  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  142. 

°A  fragment  of  the  canvass  of  1777  shows  the  returns  from 
Albany,  Cumberland,  Dutchess,  Tryon,  and  Westchester,  as  fol- 
lows: Clinton,  865;  Scott,  386;  Schuyler  1012;  Jay,  367;  Philip  Liv- 
ingston, 5;  Kobert  R.  Livingston,  7.  The  votes  from  Orange  and 
other  southern  counties  gave  the  election  to  Clinton." — Civil  List, 
State  of  New  York  (1886),  p.  164.  Subsequently,  when  the  Legislature 
met  at  Kingston  on  September  1,  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt  as  president 
of  the  Senate  performed  the  duties  of  lieutenant-governor. 

'  John  Jay,  Correspondence  and  Public  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  144. 


22  CLINTON  ELECTED  GOVERNOR       [Chap.  hi. 

is  virtuous  and  loves  his  country,"  added  Schuyler,  in  the 
next  line;  *'he  has  ability  and  is  brave,  and  I  hope  he  will 
experience  from  every  patriot  support,  countenance  and 
comfort."^  Washington  understood  his  merits.  "His  char- 
acter will  make  him  peculiarly  useful  at  the  head  of  your 
State,"  he  wrote  the  Committee  of  Safety. 

Clinton's  inauguration  occurred  on  July  30,  1777.  He 
stood  in  front  of  the  courthouse  at  Kingston  on  top  of  the 
barrel  from  which  the  Constitution  had  been  published  in 
the  preceding  April,  and  in  the  uniform  of  his  country,  with 
sword  in  hand,  he  took  the  oath  of  office.  Within  sixty 
daj's  thereafter  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  carried  the  High- 
land forts,  scattered  the  Governor's  troops,  dispersed  the 
first  Legislature  of  the  State,  burned  Kingston  to  the 
ground,  and  very  nearly  captured  the  Governor  himself,  the 
latter,  under  cover  of  night,  having  made  his  escape  by  cross- 
ing the  river  in  a  small  rowboat.  Among  the  captured  pa- 
triots was  Colonel  McClaughrj-,  the  Governor's  brother-in- 
law.  ''Where  is  my  friend  George?"  asked  Sir  Henry. 
''Thank  God,"  replied  the  Colonel,  "he  is  safe  and  beyond  the 
reach  of  your  friendship." 

^John  Jay,  Correspondence  and  Public  Papers,  Vol.  1,  p.  146. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CLINTON  AND  HAMILTON 

1777-1789 

During  the  war  Governor  Clinton's  duties  were  largely 
military.  Every  important  measure  of  the  Legislature  dealt 
with  the  public  defence,  and  the  time  of  the  Executive  was 
fully  employed  in  carrying  out  its  enactments  and  perform- 
ing the  work  of  commander-in-chief  of  the  militia.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  population  of  the  State  was  either 
avowedly  loyal  to  the  Crown  or  secretly  indisposed  to  the 
cause  of  independence.  ''Of  all  the  Colonies,"  wrote  Wil- 
liam Jay,  "New  York  was  probably  the  least  unanimous  in 
the  assertion  and  defence  of  the  principles  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  spirit  of  disaffection  was  most  extensive  on  Long 
Island,  and  had  probably  tainted  a  large  majority  of  its  in- 
habitants. In  Queens  County,  in  particular,  the  people  had, 
by  a  formal  vote,  refused  to  send  representatives  to  the 
colonial  congress  or  convention,  and  had  declared  themselves 
neutral  in  the  present  crisis."^ 

The  Governor  sought  to  crush  this  spirit  by  methods  much 
in  vogue  in  the  eighteenth  century.  At  the  outset  of  his 
career  he  declared  that  he  had  "rather  roast  in  hell  to  all 
eternity  than  be  dependent  upon  Great  Britain  or  show 
mercy  to  a  damned  Tory."  To  add  to  his  fame,  he  enforced 
this  judgment  with  heavy  fines,  long  imprisonments,  sum- 
mary banishments,  and  frequent  coats  of  tar  and  feathers. 

Very  soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  Leg- 
islature passed  a  law  requiring  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
*  William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  41. 
23 


24  CLINTON   AND   HAMILTON  [Chap.  iv. 

State;  and  under  the  vigorous  enforcement  of  this  act  the 
Governor  sent  many  Tories  from  the  rural  districts  into  the 
city  of  New  York  or  expelled  them  from  the  State.  Others 
were  required  to  give  a  pledge,  with  securit}^,  to  reside 
within  prescribed  limits.  At  times  even  the  churches  were 
filled  with  prisoners,  some  of  whom  were  sent  to  jails  in 
Connecticut,  or  exchanged  for  prisoners  of  war.  In  1779 
the  Legislature  increased  the  penalty  of  disloyalty  to  the 
State,  by  passing  the  Confiscation  Act,  declaring  ''the  for- 
feiture and  sale  of  the  estates  of  persons  who  had  adhered 
to  the  enemy." 

Up  to  this  time  only  one  political  party  had  existed  among 
the  Whig  colonists.  The  passage  of  the  Confiscation  Act, 
however,  encountered  the  opposition  of  many  sincere  lovers 
of  the  cause  of  independence,  who  favoured  a  more  moderate 
policy  toward  loyalists,  since  they  were  probably  as  sincere 
in  their  opinions  as  those  opposed  to  them.  Besides,  a  gen- 
erous and  magnanimous  course,  it  was  argued,  would  induce 
the  return  of  many  desirable  citizens  after  hostilities  had 
ceased.  To  this  the  ultra-^Vhigs  replied  that  the  law  of  self- 
preservation  made  a  severe  policy  necessary,  and  if  any  one 
suffered  by  its  operation  he  must  look  to  the  government 
of  his  choice  for  comfort  and  reimbursement.  As  for  the  re- 
turn of  the  Tories,  the  ultras  declared  that  only  citizens  sin- 
cerely loyal  to  an  independent  country  would  be  acceptable. 

This  division  into  moderate  and  ultra  Whigs  was  em- 
phasised in  1781  by  the  legislative  grant  to  Congress  of  such 
import  duties  as  accrued  at  the  port  of  New  York,  to  be 
levied  and  collected  "under  such  penalties  and  regulations, 
and  by  such  oflQcers,  as  Congress  should  from  time  to  time 
make,  order,  and  appoint."  Governor  Clinton  did  not  cor- 
dially approve  the  act  at  the  time  of  its  passage,  and  as  the 
money  began  flowing  into  the  national  treasury,  he  opposed 
the  method  of  its  surrender.  In  his  opinion,  the  State,  as  an 
independent  sovereignty,  had  associated  itself  with  other 
Colonies  only  for  mutual  protection,  and  not  for  their  sup- 
port.    At  his  instance,  therefore,  the  Legislature  substituted 


iTSi-87]        DUTIES   GRANTED   TO   CONGRESS  25 

for  the  law  of  1781  the  act  of  March,  1783,  granting  the 
duties  to  Congress,  but  directing  their  collection  by  officers 
of  the  State.  Although  this  act  was  subsequently  amended, 
making  collectors  amenable  to  Congress,  another  law  was 
enacted  in  1786  granting  Congress  the  revenue,  and  reserv- 
ing to  the  State,  as  in  the  law  of  1783,  "the  sole  power  of 
levying  and  collecting  the  duties."  When  Congress  asked 
the  Governor  to  call  a  special  session  of  the  Legislature,  that 
the  right  to  levy  and  collect  might  be  yielded  as  before,  he 
refused  to  do  so. 

Governor  Clinton  understood  the  commercial  advantages 
of  New  York's  geographical  location,  which  were  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  navigation  acts  of  other  States.  The  peace 
treaty  had  made  New  York  the  port  of  entry  for  the  whole 
region  east  of  the  Delaware,  and  into  its  coffers  poured  a 
revenue  so  marvellous  as  to  excite  hopes  of  a  prospective 
wealth  which  a  century,  remarkable  as  was  its  productive- 
ness, did  little  more  than  realise.  If  any  State,  therefore, 
could  survive  without  a  union  with  other  Colonies,  it  was 
New  York,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  many,  perhaps  a 
majority  of  its  people,  under  the  leadership  of  George  Clin- 
ton, settled  into  a  policy  unfriendly  to  a  national  revenue, 
and  later  to  a  national  government. 

The  Governor  had  gradually  become  mindful  of  an  oppo- 
sition as  stubborn  as  it  was  persistent.  He  had  encountered 
it  in  his  treatment  of  the  Tories,  but  not  until  Alexander 
Hamilton  became  an  advocate  of  amnesty  and  oblivion,  did 
Clinton  recognise  the  centre  and  future  leader  of  the  oppos- 
ing forces.  Hamilton  did  not  appear  among  those  inter- 
ested in  the  election  of  governor  in  1777.  His  youth  shut 
him  out  of  Assembly  and  Congress,  out  of  committees  and 
conventions,  but  it  did  not  shut  him  out  of  the  army;  and 
while  Governor  Clinton  was  wrestling  with  new  problems 
of  government  in  the  formation  of  a  new  State,  Hamilton 
was  acting  as  secretary,  aide,  companion,  and  confidant  of 
Washington,  accepting  suggestions  as  commands,  and  ac- 
quiescing in  his  chief's  judgment  with  a  fidelity  born  of  love 


26  CLINTON   AND   HAMILTON  [Chap.  iv. 

and  admiration.  In  the  history  of  war  nothing  is  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  friendship  existing  between  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  his  country  and  this  brave  young  officer,  spirited 
and  impulsive,  brilliant  and  able,  yet  frank  and  candid,  with- 
out ostentation  and  without  egotism.  It  recalls  a  later-day 
relationship  between  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  John  A.  Rawlins, 
his  chief  of  staff. 

In  July,  1781,  Hamilton,  in  command  of  a  corps,  accom- 
panied Washington  in  the  forced  march  of  the  American 
army  from  New  York  to  Yorktown.  This  afforded  him  the 
opportunity,  so  long  and  eagerlj^  sought,  of  handling  an  in- 
dependent command  at  a  supreme  moment  of  danger,  and 
before  the  sua  went  down  on  the  14th  of  October,  he  had  led 
his  troops  with  fixed  bayonets,  under  a  heavy  and  constant 
fire,  over  abatis,  ditch,  and  palisades;  then,  mounting  the 
parapet,  he  leaped  into  the  redoubt.  Washington  saw  the 
Impetuosity  of  the  attack  in  the  face  of  the  murderous  fire, 
the  daring  leap  to  the  parapet  with  three  of  his  soldiers,  and 
the  almost  fatal  spring  into  the  redoubt.  "Few  cases,"  he 
says,  "have  exhibited  greater  proofs  of  intrepidity,  coolness, 
and  firmness."     Three  days  later  Cornwallis  surrendered. 

In  the  summer  of  1782  Hamilton  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  Albany,  but  soon  afterward  settled  in  New  York  City, 
where  he  seems  to  have  come  into  practice  and  into  fame  by 
defending  the  rights  of  Tories.  For  four  years  after  the  war 
ended,  the  treatment  of  British  sympathisers  was  the 
dominant  political  issue  in  New  York.  Governor  Clinton 
advocated  disfranchisement  and  banishment,  and  the  Legis- 
lature enacted  into  law  what  he  advised;  so  that  when  the 
British  troops,  under  the  peace  treaty,  evacuated  New  York, 
in  November,  1783,  loyalists  who  had  thus  far  escaped  the 
wrath  of  this  patriot  Governor,  flocked  to  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick  like  birds  seeking  a  more  congenial  clime, 
recalling  the  flight  of  the  Huguenots  after  the  revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  one  hundred  years  earlier.  It  is  not  easy 
to  estimate  the  number  who  fled  before  this  savage  and  vio- 
lent action  of  the  Legislature.     Sir  Guy  Carleton,  in  com- 


1783-87]  INTOLEEANCE  AND  AMNESTY  21 

mand  at  New  York,  fixes  the  emigration  at  one  hundred 
thousand  souls.  For  many  years  the  "Landing  of  the  Loyal- 
ists" was  annually  commemorated  at  St.  John,  and  in  the 
cemeteries  of  England  and  Scotland  are  found  the  tomb- 
stones of  these  unfortunate  devotees  of  the  mother  country. 
It  is  likely  Clinton  was  too  intolerant,  but  it  was  the  in- 
tolerance that  follows  revolution.  Hamilton,  on  the  other 
hand,  became  an  early  advocate  of  amnesty  and  oblivion, 
and,  although  public  sentiment  and  the  Legislature  were 
against  him,  he  finally  succeeded  in  modifying  the  one  and 
changing  the  other.  "Nothing  is  more  common,"  he  observed, 
"than  for  a  free  people  in  times  of  heat  and  violence  to  grat- 
ify momentary  passions  by  letting  in  principles  and  prece- 
dents which  afterwards  prove  fatal  to  themselves.  If  the 
Legislature  can  disfranchise  at  pleasure,  it  may  soon  confine 
all  the  votes  to  a  small  number  of  partisans,  and  establish  an 
aristocracy  or  an  oligarchy;  if  it  may  banish  at  discretion, 
without  hearing  or  trial,  no  man  can  be  safe.  The  name  of 
liberty  applied  to  such  a  government  would  be  a  mockery 
of  common  sense."^ 

The  differences  between  Congress  and  the  Legislature  re- 
specting the  collection  of  duties  also  brought  Clinton  and 
Hamilton  into  conflict.  As  early  as  1776  Hamilton  had 
considered  the  question  whether  Congress  ought  not  to  col- 
lect its  own  taxes  by  its  own  agents,^  and,  when  a  member  of 
Congress  in  1783,  he  urged  it*  as  one  of  the  cardinal  features 
of  an  adequate  federal  system.  In  1787  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Legislature.  Here  he  insisted  upon  having  the  federal 
revenue  system  adopted  by  the  State.  His  argument  was  an 
extended  exposition  of  the  facts  which  made  such  action 
important.^  Under  the  lead  of  Clinton,  however.  New  York 
was  willing  to  surrender  the  money,  but  not  the  power  of 
collection  to  Congress. 

^Eamilton's  ^Yor'ks   (Lodge),  Vol.  3,  p.  450. 

'Republic,  Vol.  1,  p.  122. 

*  Madison  Papers,  Vol.  1,  pp.  288,  291,  380. 

"Works,  Vol.  2,  p.  16. 


28  CLINTON   AND   HAMILTON  [Chap.iv. 

Meantime,  the  pitiable  condition  to  which  the  Confedera- 
tion had  come,  accented  the  need  of  a  stronger  central  gov- 
ernment. To  this  end  Clinton  and  Hamilton  seemed  for 
several  years  to  be  working  in  harmony.  In  1780 
Clinton  had  presented  to  the  Legislature  the  ''defect  of 
power"  in  the  Confederation,  and,  in  1781,  John  Sloss  Ho- 
bart  and  Egbert  Benson,  representing  New  York  at  a  con- 
vention in  Hartford,  urged  the  recommendation  empowering 
Congress  to  apportion  taxes  among  the  States  in  the  ratio 
of  their  total  population.  The  next  year,  Hamilton,  although 
not  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  persuaded  it  to  adopt  res- 
olutions written  by  him,  declaring  that  the  powers  of  the 
central  government  should  be  extended,  and  that  it  should 
be  authorised  to  provide  revenue  for  itself.  To  this  end  "it 
would  be  advisable,"  continued  the  resolutions,  "to  propose 
to  Congress  to  recommend,  and  to  each  State  to  adopt,  the 
measure  of  assembling  a  general  convention  of  the  States, 
specially  authorised  to  revise  and  amend  the  Constitution." 
To  Washington's  farewell  letter,  appealing  for  a  stronger 
central  government,  Governor  Clinton  sent  a  cordial  re- 
sponse, and  in  transmitting  the  address  to  the  Legislature  in 
1784,  he  recommended  attention  "to  every  measure  which 
has  a  tendency  to  cement  the  Union,  and  to  give  to  the  na- 
tional councils  that  energy  which  may  be  necessary  for  the 
general  welfare."® 

Nevertheless,  Clinton  was  not  always  candid.  His  oflScial 
communications  read  like  the  utterances  of  a  friend ;  but  his 
influence,  as  disclosed  in  the  acts  of  1783  and  1786,  reserving 
to  the  State  the  sole  power  of  levying  and  collecting  duties, 
clearly  indicate  that  while  he  loved  his  country  in  a  matter- 
of-fact  sort  of  way,  it  meant  a  country  divided,  a  country 
of  thirteen  States  each  berating  the  other,  a  country  of  trade 
barriers  and  commercial  resentments,  a  country  of  more  im- 
portance to  New  York  and  to  Clinton  than  to  other  Com- 
monwealths which  had  made  equal  sacrifices. 

Thus  matters  drifted  until  New  York  and  other  middle 
'Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  1,  p.  277. 


1786-87]  FOEMING  THE  UNION  29 

Atlantic  States  discovered  that  it  was  impossible  under  the 
impotent  Articles  of  Confederation  to  regulate  commerce  in 
waters  bordered  by  two  or  more  States.  Even  when  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  could  agree,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  other 
side  of  New  Jersey,  was  likely  to  withhold  its  consent.  Fric- 
tion of  a  similar  character  existed  between  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  and  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania.  This  compelled  Congress  to  call  the  conven- 
tion, to  which  commissioners  from  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Virginia,  assembled  at  Annap- 
olis in  1786,  to  consider  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  suggest  measures  for  the  action  of 
Congress,  Hamilton  and  Egbert  Benson  were  members  of 
this  body,  the  former  of  whom  wrote  the  address,  afterward 
adopted,  which  declared  the  federal  government  ineflScient, 
and  proposed  a  convention  to  revise  the  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration,^ in  order  to  render  them  adequate  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  Union.  This  was  the  resolution  unanimously  adopted 
by  the  New  York  Legislature  in  1782,  but  to  the  surprise  of 
Hamilton  and  the  friends  of  a  stronger  government,  the  Leg- 
islature now  disapproved  such  a  convention.  The  idea  did 
not  please  George  Clinton.  As  Hamilton  summed  up  the 
opposition,  it  meant  disinclination  to  taxation,  fear  of  the 
enforcement  of  debts,  democratic  jealousy  of  important  of- 
ficials, and  the  influence  of  foreign  powers.^ 

In  1787,  however,  the  Legislature  adopted  a  joint  resolu- 
tion instructing  members  of  Congress  from  the  State  to 
urge  that  a  convention  be  held  to  amend  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, and,  when  Congress  issued  the  call,^  Robert  Yates, 
John  Lansing,  Jr.,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  were  elected 
delegates  ''for  the  sole  purpose  of  revising  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  and  reporting  to  Congress  and  the  several 
Legislatures  such  alterations  as  shall,  when  agreed  to  by  Con- 
gress and  confirmed  by  the  several  States,  render  the  Federal 

''Journal  of  Congress,  Vol.  12,  p.  12. 

*  Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  1,  p.  401, 

°In  Madison  Papers,  Vol.  2,  Introductory  to  Debates  of  1787,  is  a 
history  of  previous  steps  toward  union. 


30  CLINTON   AND   HAMILTON  [Chap.iv. 

Constitution  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  government  and 
the  preservation  of  the  Union."  Hamilton's  election  to  this 
convention  was  cited  as  proof  of  Clinton's  disposition  to 
treat  fairly  the  opponents  of  state  supremacy,  since  it  was 
well  understood  that  his  presence  at  Philadelphia  would  add 
the  ablest  and  most  ultra  exponent  of  a  strong,  central  gov- 
ernment. It  was  certainly  in  Clinton's  power  to  defeat 
Hamilton  as  he  did  John  Jay,  but  his  liberality  carried  a 
high  check-rein,  for  Robert  Yates  and  John  Lansing  were 
selected  to  overcome  Hamilton's  vote. 

Clinton's  first  choice  for  a  delegate  was  Yates,  whose  criti- 
cism of  the  work  of  the  convention  manifests  hostility  to  a 
Union.  He  seemed  to  have  little  conception  of  what  would 
satisfy  the  real  needs  of  a  strong  government,  preferring  the 
vague  doctrines  of  the  old  Whigs  in  the  early  days  of  revolu- 
tion. Lansing  was  clearer,  and,  perhaps,  less  extreme  in 
his  views ;  but  he  wanted  nothing  more  than  an  amendment 
of  the  existing  Confederation,  known  as  the  New  Jersey 
plan.^"  The  moment,  therefore,  that  a  majority  favoured  the 
Virginia  plan  which  contemplated  a  national  government 

10  "After  an  amendment  of  the  first,  so  as  to  declare  that  'the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  ought  to  consist  of  a  supreme  legisla- 
tive, judiciary,  and  executive,'  Lansing  moved  a  declaration  'that 
the  powers  of  legislation  be  vested  in  the  United  States  Congress.* 
He  stated  that  if  the  Jersey  plan  vi^as  not  adopted,  it  would  produce 
the  mischiefs  they  were  convened  to  obviate.  That  the  principles 
of  that  system  were  an  equality  of  representation,  and  dependence 
of  the  members  of  Congress  on  the  States.  That  as  long  as  state 
distinctions  exist,  state  prejudices  would  operate,  whether  the 
election  be  by  the  States  or  the  people.  If  there  was  no  interest  to 
oppress,  there  was  no  need  of  an  apportionment.  What  would  be 
the  effect  of  the  other  plan?  Virginia  would  have  sixteen,  Dela- 
ware one  representative.  Will  the  general  government  have  leisure 
to  examine  the  state  laws?  Will  it  have  the  necessary  information? 
Will  the  States  agree  to  surrender?  Let  us  meet  public  opinion, 
and  hope  the  progress  of  sentiment  will  make  future  arrangements. 
He  would  like  the  system  of  his  colleague  (Hamilton)  if  it  could 
be  established,  but  it  was  a  system  without  example." — Hamilton's 
M88.  notes.  Vol.  6,  p.  77.  Lansing's  motion  was  negatived  by  six  to 
four  States,  Maryland  being  divided. 


1787]  THE    FEDERAL    CONSTITUTION  31 

with  an  executive,  legislature,  and  judiciary  of  its  own,, 
Lansing  and  Yates,  regarding  it  a  violation  of  their  instruc- 
tions, and  with  the  approval  of  Governor  Clinton,  with- 
drew" from  the  convention  and  refused  to  sign  the  Consti- 
tution after  its  adoption.^ ^ 

Hamilton  doubted  if  Madison's  plan  was  strong  enough 
to  secure  the  object  in  view.  He  suggested  a  scheme  con- 
tinuing a  President  and  Senate  during  good  behaviour,  and 
giving  the  federal  government  power  to  appoint  governors 
of  States  and  to  veto  state  legislation.  In  the  notes  of  a 
speech  presenting  this  plan,  he  disclaimed  the  belief  that  it 
was  ''attainable,"  but  thought  it  "a  model  which  we  ought 
to  approach  as  near  as  possible."^^  After  the  Madison  plaa 
had  been  preferred,  however,  Hamilton  gave  it  earnest  sup- 
port, and  although  he  could  not  cast  New  York's  vote,  since 
a  majority  of  the  State's  representatives  had  withdrawn,  he 
was  privileged  to  sign  the  Constitution.  If  he  had  never 
done  anything  else,  it  was  glory  enough  to  have  subscribed 
his  name  to  that  immortal  record.    When  Hamilton  returned 

"Yates  and  Lansing  retired  finally  from  the  convention  onJuly  10, 
"  "That  they  acted  in  accordance  with  Clinton  was  proved  by 
his  deportment  at  this  time.  Unreserved  declarations  were  made  hy 
him,  that  no  good  was  to  be  expected  from  the  appointment  or 
deliberations  of  this  body;  that  the  country  would  be  thrown  into 
confusion  by  the  measure.  Hamilton  said  'Clinton  was  not  a  man 
governed  in  ordinary  cases  by  sudden  impulses;  though  of  an  irri- 
table temper,  when  not  under  the  immediate  influence  of  irrita- 
tion, he  was  circumspect  and  guarded,  and  seldom  acted  or  spoke 
without  premeditation  or  design.'  When  the  Governor  made  such 
declarations,  therefore,  Hamilton  feared  that  Clinton's  conduct 
would  induce  the  confusion  he  so  confidently  and  openly  predicted, 
and  to  exhibit  it  before  the  public  in  all  its  deformity,  Hamilton 
published  a  pointed  animadversion,  charging  these  declarations 
upon  him,  and  avowing  a  readiness  to  substantiate  them." — John 
C.  Hamilton,    Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  Vol.  2,  p,  528. 

^^  Works,  Vol.  1,  p.  357.  G.  T.  Curtis,  Commentaries  on  the  Con- 
stitution, pp.  371,  381,  presents  a  very  careful  analysis  of  Hamilton's 
plan.  For  fac-simile  copy  of  Hamilton's  plan,  see  Documentary 
History  of  the  Constitution  (a  recent  Government  publication),  Vol.  3, 
p.  771. 


32  CLINTON   AND    HAMILTON  [Chap.iv. 

home,  however,  he  found  himself  discredited  by  a  majority 
of  the  people.  "You  were  not  authorised  by  the  State,"  said 
Governor  Clinton.^*  Richard  Morris,  the  chief  justice,  re- 
marked to  him:  "You  will  find  yourself,  I  fear,  in  a  hor- 
net's nest."^^ 

On  September  28,  1787,  Congress  transmitted  a  draft  of 
the  Constitution,  which  required  the  assent  of  nine  of  the 
thirteen  States,  to  the  several  legislatures.  At  once  it  be- 
came the  sole  topic  of  discussion.  In  New  York  it  was  the 
occasion  of  riots,  of  mobs,  and  of  violent  contests.  It  was 
called  the  "triple-headed  monster,"  and  declared  to  be  "as 
deep  and  wicked  a  conspiracy  as  ever  was  invented  in  the 
darkest  ages  against  the  liberties  of  a  free  people."  Its  op- 
ponents, numbering  four-sevenths  of  the  community — al- 
though their  strength  was  mainly  in  the  country^^ — and  call- 
ing themselves  Federal  Republicans,  organised  a  society  and 
opened  correspondence  with  leading  men  in  other  States. 
"All  the  old  alarm  about  liberty  was  now  revived,"  says  W. 
G.  Sumner,  "and  all  the  elements  of  anarchy  and  repudia- 
tion which  had  been  growing  so  strong  for  twenty  years 
were  arrayed  in  hostility." ^^  But  its  bitterest  opponent 
in  the  thirteen  Colonies  was  George  Clinton.^^  "He  pre- 
ferred to  remain  the  most  powerful  citizen  of  New  York, 
rather  than  occupy  a  subordinate  place  under  a  national 
government  in  which  his  own  State  was  not  foremost."^"  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Federalist,  written  largely  by  Hamilton, 
carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  thousands  who  had  pre- 
viously doubted  the  wisdom  of  the  plan.  In  the  last  number 
of  the  series,  he  said :  "The  system,  though  it  may  not  be 
perfect  in  every  part,  is  upon  the  whole  a  good  one,  is  the 
best  that  the  present  views  and  circumstances  will  permit, 

"  M.  E.  Lamb,    History  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  318. 

"Ibid.,  Vol.  2,  p.  318. 

"W.  G.  Sumner,    Life  of  Hamilton,  p.  137. 

"Ibid.,  p.  135. 

"  John  Fiske,  Critical  Period  of  American  History,  p.  340. 

"  John  Fiske,    Essays  Historical  and  Literal^,  Vol.  1,  p.  118. 


1788]  EATIFICATION   OPPOSED  33 

and  is  such  an  one  as  promises  every  species  of  security 
which  a  reasonable  people  can  desire."-" 

When  the  Legislature  opened,  Governor  Clinton  delivered 
the  usual  speech  or  message,  but  he  said  nothing  of  what 
everybody  else  was  talking  about.  Consideration  of  the  Con- 
stitution was  the  only  important  business  before  that  body ; 
four  States  had  already  ratified  it,  and  three  others  had  it 
under  consideration;  yet  the  Governor  said  not  a  word.  His 
idea  was  for  New  York  to  hold  off  and  let  the  others  try  it. 
Then,  if  the  Union  succeeded,  although  revenue  difificulties 
were  expected  to  break  it  up  immediately,-^  the  State  could 
come  in.  Meantime,  like  Patrick  Henry  of  Virginia,  he  pro- 
posed another  general  convention,  to  be  held  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, to  consider  amendments.  Thus  matters  drifted  until 
January,  1788,  when  Egbert  Benson,  now  a  member  of  the 
Legislature,  offered  a  resolution  for  holding  a  state  conven- 
tion to  consider  the  federal  document.  Dilatory  motions 
blocked  its  way,  and  its  friends  began  to  despair  of  better 
things;  but  Benson  persisted,  until,  at  last,  after  great  bitter- 
ness, the  resolution  was  adopted. 

Of  the  sixty-one  delegates  to  this  convention,  which  assem- 
bled at  the  courthouse  in  Poughkeepsie  on  June  17,  two- 
thirds  were  opposed  to  the  Constitution.^^  The  convention 
organised  with  Governor  Clinton  for  president.  Among  the 
champions  of  the  Constitution  appeared  Hamilton,  Jay,  Rob- 
ert R.  Livingston,  Robert  Morris,  James  Duane,  then  mayor 
of  New  York,  John  Sloss  Hobart,  Richard  Harrison,  and 
others  of  like  character.  Robert  Y'ates,  Samuel  Jones, 
Melancthon  Smith,  and  John  Lansing,  Jr.,  led  the  fight 
against  it.  Beginning  on  June  19,  the  discussion  continued 
until  July  28.  Hamilton,  his  eloquence  at  its  best,  so  that 
at  times  there  was  not  a  dry  eye  in  the  assembly,^^  especially 
emphasised  the  public  debt.  "It  is  a  fact  that  should  strike 
us  with  shame,  that  we  are  obliged  to  borrow  money  in  order 

^'' Works  of  Hamilton,  Vol.  9,  p.   548. 

="W,  G.  Sumner,   Life  of  Hamilton,  p.   137.  "Jftitf.,  137. 

"  M.  E.  Lamb,  History  of  the   City  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  320. 


34  CLINTON   AND    HAMILTON  [Chap.  iv. 

to  pay  the  interest  of  our  debt.  It  is  a  fact  that  these  debts 
are  accumulatiug  every  day  by  compound  interest."^*  In 
the  old  Confederation,  he  declared,  the  idea  of  liberty  alone 
was  considered,  but  that  another  thing  was  equally  impor- 
tant— "I  mean  a  principle  of  strength  and  stability  in  the 
organisation  of  our  government,  and  of  vigour  in  its  opera- 
tions."^^ Professor  Sumner,  in  his  admirable  biography,  ex- 
presses surprise  that  nothing  is  said  about  debts  in  the  Fed- 
eralist, and  comparatively  little  about  the  Supreme  Court. 
*'This  is  very  remarkable,"  he  says,  "in  view  of  the  subse- 
quent history ;  for  if  there  is  any  'sleeping  giant'  in  the  Con- 
stitution, it  has  proved  to  be  the  power  of  the  Supreme 
Court  to  pass  upon  the  constitutionality  of  laws.  It  does 
not  appear  that  Hamilton  or  anybody  else  foresaw  that  this 
function  of  the  Court  would  build  upon  the  written  consti- 
tution a  body  of  living  constitutional  law."'® 

Melancthon  Smith  was  the  ablest  opponent  of  the  Consti- 
tution, Familiar  with  political  history,  and  one  of  the 
ablest  debaters  in  the  country,  he  proved  himself  no  mean 
antagonist  even  for  Hamilton.  "He  must  have  been  a  man 
of  rare  candour,  too,"  says  John  Fiske,  ''for  after  weeks  of 
debate  he  owned  himself  convinced.""  Whatever  could  be 
said  against  the  Constitution,  Smith  voiced  it ;  and  there  was 
apparent  merit  in  some  of  his  objections.  To  a  majority 
of  the  people,  New  York  appeared  to  be  surrendering  nat- 
ural advantages  in  much  larger  measure  than  other  Com- 
monwealths, while  its  concession  of  political  power  struck 
them  as  not  unlikely  to  endanger  the  personal  liberty  of  the 
citizen  and  the  independence  of  the  State.  They  disliked  the 
idea  of  a  far-off  government,  with  many  officers  drawing 
large  salaries,  administering  the  aumy,  the  navy,  and  the 
diplomatic  relations  with  nations  of  the  Old  World.  It  was 
so  dififerent  from  anything  experienced  since  their  separation 
from  England,  that  they   dreaded   this  centralised   power; 

^EamiUon's  Worlcs,  Vol.  1,  p.  491. 

=">  Ihid.,  p.  449. 

'•W.  G.  Sumner,  Life  of  Homiltntu  p.  139. 

*^  John  Fiske,  Essays  Eistorkal  and  Literary,  Vol.  1,  p.  125. 


1788]  NEW  YOEK  FORCED  TO  ACT  35 

and,  to  minimise  it,  they  proposed  several  amendments, 
among  them  one  that  no  person  should  be  eligible  to  the 
office  of  President  for  a  third  term.  Time  has  demonstrated 
the  wisdom  of  some  of  these  suggestions;  but  commendable 
as  they  now  appear  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  century, 
they  were  of  trifling  importance  compared  to  the  necessity 
for  a  closer,  stronger  union  of  the  States  in  1787. 

Federalists  were  much  alarmed  over  the  failure  of  New 
York  to  ratify.  Although  the  State  ranked  only  fifth  in  pop- 
ulation, commercially  it  was  the  centre  of  the  Union.  From 
the  standpoint  of  military  movements,  too,  it  had  been  su- 
premely important  in  the  days  of  Montcalm  and  Burgoyne, 
and  it  was  felt  that  a  Federal  Union  cut  in  twain  by  the 
Mohawk  and  Hudson  valleys  must  have  a  short  life.  "For 
my  own  part,"  said  Hamilton,  "the  more  I  can  penetrate 
the  views  of  the  anti-federal  party  in  this  State,  the  more  I 
dread  the  consequences  of  the  non-adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion by  any  of  the  other  States — the  more  I  fear  eventual 
disunion  and  civil  war."-^  His  fear  bred  an  apparent  will- 
ingness to  agree  to  a  conditional  ratification,^^  until  Madison 
settled  the  question  that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as 
conditional  ratification  since  constitutional  secession  would 
be  absurd.  On  July  11  Jay  moved  that  "the  Constitution 
be  ratified,  and  that  whatever  amendments  might  be  deemed 
expedient  should  be  recommended."  This,  however,  did  not 
satisfy  the  opposition,  and  the  discussion  continued. 

Hamilton,  however,  did  not  rely  upon  argument  alone.  He 
arranged  for  news  of  the  Virginia  and  New  Hampshire  con- 
ventions, and  while  Clinton,  clinging  to  his  demand  for  con- 
ditional ratification,  still  hesitated,  word  came  from  New 
Hampshire,  by  a  system  of  horse  expresses,  telling  the  glad 
story  that  the  requisite  number  of  States  had  been  secured. 
This  reduced  the  question  to  ratification  or  secession.  A  few 
days  later  it  was  learned  that  Virginia  had  also  joined  the 
majority.  The  support  of  Patrick  Henry  had  been  a  tower 
of  strength  to  Governor  Clinton,  and  his  defeat  exaggerated 
Clinton's  fear  that  New  York  City  and  the  southern  counties 

=»  Enmilton's  Works,  Vol.   8,  p.   187.  *'  Ibid.,  p.  191. 


36  CLINTON   AND   HAMILTON  [Chap.  iv. 

which  favoured  the  Constitution  might  now  execute  their 
threat  to  split  off  unless  New  York  ratified.  Then  came 
Melancthon  Smith's  change  to  the  federalist  side.  This  was 
like  crushing  the  centre  of  a  hostile  army.  Finally,  on  July 
28,  a  resolution  '"that  the  Constitution  be  ratified  in  full 
confidence  that  the  amendments  proposed  by  this  convention 
will  be  adopted,"  received  a  vote  of  thirty  to  twenty-seven. 
Governor  Clinton  did  not  vote,  but  it  was  known  that  he 
advised  several  of  his  friends  to  favour  the  resolution.  On 
September  13,  he  officially  proclaimed  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Republic. 

Posterity  has  never  severely  criticised  George  Clinton's 
opposition  to  national  development.  His  sincerity  and  pa- 
triotism have  been  accepted.  To  Washington  and  Hamilton, 
however,  his  conduct  seemed  like  a  cold  and  selfish  desertion 
of  his  country  at  the  moment  of  its  utmost  peril.  ''The  men 
who  oppose  a  strong  and  energetic  government,"  wrote 
Washington  to  Hamilton  on  July  10,  1787,  the  day  of  Yates* 
and  Lansing's  retirement  from  the  Philadelphia  convention, 
"are,  in  my  opinion,  narrow-minded  politicians,  or  are  under 
the  influence  of  local  views."  This  reference  to  "local 
views"  meant  George  Clinton,  upon  whose  advice  Y^'ates  and 
Lansing  acted,  and  who  declared  unreservedly  that  only  con- 
fusion could  come  to  the  country  from  a  convention  and  a 
measure  wholly  unnecessary,  since  the  Confederation,  if 
given  sufficient  trial,  would  probably  answer  all  the  purposes 
of  the  Union. 

The  march  of  events  has  so  clearly  proved  the  wisdom  of 
Hamilton  and  the  unwisdom  of  Clinton,  that  the  name  of 
one,  joined  inseparably  with  that  of  Washington,  has  grown 
with  the  century,  until  it  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  history 
of  the  Union  as  the  Constitution  itself.  The  name  of  George 
Clinton,  on  the  contrary,  is  little  known  beyond  the  limits  of 
his  native  State.  It  remained  for  DeWitt  Clinton,  the  Gov- 
ernor's distinguished  nephew,  to  link  the  family  with  an 
historic  enterprise  which  should  bring  it  down  through  the 
ages  with  increasing  respect  and  admiration. 


CHAPTER  V 

CLINTON'S  FOURTH  TERM 

1789-1792 

At  each  triennial  election  for  twelve  years,  ever  since  the 
adoption  of  the  State  Constitution  in  1777,  George  Clinton 
had  been  chosen  governor.  No  one  else,  in  fact,  had  ever 
been  seriously  talked  of,  save  John  Jay  in  1786.  Doubtless 
Clinton  derived  some  advantage  from  the  control  of  appoint- 
ments, which  multiplied  in  number  and  increased  in  influ- 
ence as  term  succeeded  term,  but  his  popularity  drew  its  in- 
spiration from  sources  other  than  patronage.  A  strong, 
rugged  character,  and  a  generous,  sympathetic  nature,  sunk 
their  roots  deeply  into  the  hearts  of  a  liberty-loving  people 
who  supported  their  favourite  with  the  fidelity  of  personal 
friendship. 

The  time  had,  however,  come  at  last  when  Clinton's  right 
to  continue  as  governor  was  to  be  contested.  Hamilton's 
encounter  with  the  New  York  opponents  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution had  been  vigorous  and  acrimonious.  It  was  easy 
to  stand  with  one's  State  in  opposing  the  Constitution  when 
opposition  had  behind  it  the  powerful  Clinton  interest  and 
the  persuasive  Clinton  argument  that  federal  union  meant 
the  substitution  of  experiment  for  experience,  and  the  ex- 
change of  a  superior  for  an  inferior  position ;  but  it  required 
a  splendid  stubbornness  to  face,  daringly  and  aggressively, 
the  desperate  odds  arrayed  against  the  Constitution.  Every 
man  who  wanted  to  curry  favour  with  Clinton  was  ready  to 
strike  at  Hamilton,  and  they  covered  him  with  obloquy. 
Very  likely  his  attitude  was  not  one  to  tempt  the  forbearance 
of  angry  opponents.    He  did  not  fight  with  gloves.    Never- 

37 


360044 


.-38  CLINTON'S  FOUETH  TERM  [Chap.  v. 

theless,  his  success  added  one  more  to  his  list  of  splendid 
victories.  He  had  beaten  Clinton  in  his  intolerant  treat- 
ment of  loyalists;  he  had  beaten  him  in  obtaining  for  Con- 
gress the  sole  power  of  regulating  commerce;  he  had  beaten 
him  in  the  Philadelphia  convention  called  to  frame  a  federal 
constitution;  he  had  beaten  him  in  a  state  convention  called 
to  ratify  that  constitution;  and  now  he  proposed  to  beat 
him  for  governor  in  a  State  which  would  have  great  influ- 
ence in  smoothing  the  way  for  the  new  federal  government. 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  there  had  been  local 
parties  in  the  various  States,  divided  on  issues  of  hard  and 
soft  money,  on  imposts,  on  treatment  of  Tories,  and  on  state 
rights,  and  these  issues  had  coincided  in  many  of  the  States. 
During  the  contest  growing  out  of  the  adoption  of  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  all  these  elements  became  segregated  into 
two  great  political  parties,  those  who  supported  the  Con- 
stitution being  known  as  Federalists — those  who  were  op- 
posed to  strengthening  the  bond  between  the  States  being 
called  anti-Federalists.  The  latter  were  clearly  in  the  ma- 
jority in  New  York,  and  Hamilton  rightly  inferred  that, 
notwithstanding  the  people,  since  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, manifested  a  disposition  to  sustain  the  general 
government,  a  large  majority  of  freeholders,  having  hereto- 
fore supported  Clinton  as  a  wise,  patriotic  governor,  would 
not  now  desert  him  for  an  out-and-out  Federalist.  To  meet 
this  emergency,  several  Federalists,  at  a  meeting  held 
February  11,  1789,  nominated  Robert  Yates,  an  anti-Feder- 
alist judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  hoping  thus  to  form  a 
<3oalition  with  the  more  moderate  men  of  his  party. 

In  support  of  such  politics,  of  the  doubtful  wisdom  of 
which  there  was  abundant  illustration  in  the  recent  unnat- 
ural coalition  between  Lord  North  and  the  brilliant  Charles 
James  Fox,  Hamilton  wrote  to  his  friends  in  Albany  that  in 
settling  upon  a  candidate,  some  difficulties  occurred.  "Our 
fellow  citizens  in  some  parts  of  the  State,"  he  said,  "had 
proposed  Judge  Yates,  others  had  been  advocates  of  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Van  Cortlandt,  and  others  for  Chief  Justice 


1789]  HAMILTON'S    COAXITION  39 

Morris.  It  is  well  known  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  city 
are,  with  few  exceptions,  strongly  attached  to  the  new  Con- 
stitution. It  is  also  well  known  that  the  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor and  Chief  Justice,  whom  we  respect  and  esteem,  were 
zealous  advocates  for  the  same  cause.  Had  it  been  agreed 
to  support  either  of  them  for  governor,  there  would  have 
been  reason  to  fear  that  the  measure  would  have  been  im- 
puted to  party,  and  not  to  a  desire  of  relieving  our  country 
from  the  evils  they  experience  from  the  heats  of  party.  It 
appeared,  therefore,  most  advisable  to  elect  some  man  of  the 
opposite  party,  in  whose  integrity,  patriotism,  and  temper, 
confidence  might  be  placed,  however  little  his  political  opin- 
ions on  the  question  lately  agitated  might  be  approved  by 
those  who  were  assembled  upon  that  occasion. 

"Among  the  persons  of  this  description,  there  were  cir- 
cumstances which  led  to  a  decision  in  favour  of  Judge  Yates. 
It  is  certain  that  as  a  man  and  a  judge  he  is  generally  es- 
teemed. And,  though  his  opposition  to  the  new  Constitution 
was  such  as  his  friends  cannot  but  disapprove,  yet,  since  the 
period  of  its  adoption,  his  conduct  has  been  tempered  with  a 
degree  of  moderation,  and  seems  to  point  him  out  as  a  man 
likely  to  compose  the  differences  of  the  State.  Of  this  at 
least  we  feel  confident,  that  he  has  no  personal  revenge  to 
gratify,  no  opponents  to  oppress,  no  partisans  to  provide 
for,  nor  any  promises  for  personal  purposes  to  be  performed 
at  the  public  expense."^ 

To  many  the  selection  of  Robert  Yates  seemed  almost  un- 
gracious. The  Federalists  wanted  Richard  Morris,  chief 
justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  had  encouraged  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  strong  government,  and,  as  a  member  of  the 
Poughkeepsie  convention,  had  voted  to  ratify  the  Federal 
Constitution.  Besides,  he  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
of  inflexible  integrity,  firm  and  decided  in  character,  whose 
full,  rounded  face  and  commanding  presence  appeared  to  ad- 
vantage among  the  stately  and  dignified  personages  who  sup- 
ported knee  breeches  and  silk  stockings,  and  displayed  the 
^Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  1,  p.  509. 


40  CLINTON'S  FOURTH   TERM  [Chap.  v. 

delicate  ruffles  of  a  shirt  under  the  folds  of  a  rich  velvet 
coat.  Hamilton  was  fond  of  Morris,  and  recognised  the 
justice  of  his  claims.  Their  views  in  no  wise  differed,  their 
families  were  intimate,  and  at  the  Poughkeepsie  convention, 
after  listening  for  three  hours  to  Hamilton's  speech,  Morris 
had  pronounced  it  the  ablest  argument  and  most  patriotic 
address  ever  heard  in  the  State  of  New  York.  But  the  great 
Federalist,  determined  to  destroy  Clinton,  wanted  availabil- 
ity, not  fidelity,  and  so  Morris  declined  in  favour  of  Yates. 

In  everything  Robert  Y'ates  was  an  anti-Federalist.  He 
dressed  like  one  and  he  talked  like  one.  He  had  been  an  oppo- 
nent of  the  Federal  Constitution,  an  advocate  of  the  doctrine 
of  state  supremacy,  and  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. With  Clinton's  approval  he  had  withdrawn  from  the 
Philadelphia  convention  when  the  majority  favoured  a  strong 
government  wielding  supreme  authority ;  with  Clinton's  ap- 
proval, he  had  opposed  the  ratification  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution in  the  state  convention  at  Poughkeepsie,  and  with 
Clinton's  approval  he  declined  to  change  his  vote,  although 
New  Hampshire's  action  and  Hamilton's  speech  had  already 
settled  the  question  of  ratification.  What  Hamilton  pro- 
posed, Y'ates  opposed;  what  Clinton  advocated,  Y^ates  ap- 
proved. After  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution,  however, 
Robert  Y'ates  charged  the  grand  jury  that  it  would  be  little 
short  of  treason  against  the  Republic  to  disobey  it.  "Let  me 
exhort  you,  gentlemen,"  he  said,  "not  only  in  your  capacity 
as  grand  jurors,  but  in  your  more  durable  and  equally  re- 
spectable character  as  citizens,  to  preserve  inviolate  this 
charter  of  our  national  rights  and  safety^^  a  charter  second 
only  in  dignity  and  importance  to  the  Declaration  of  our  In- 
dependence." 

Upon  the  bench  Y''ates  distinguished  himself  for  impar- 
tiality and  independence,  if  not  for  learning.  He  abated  the 
intemperate  zeal  of  patriotic  juries,  and  he  refused  to  convict 
men  suspected  of  disloyalty,  without  proof.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  sent  a  jury  back  four  times  to  reconsider  a  verdict 
of  guilty  unauthorised  by  the  evidence,  and  subsequently 


1789]  ROBERT   YATES  41 

treated  with  indiflference  a  legislative  threat  of  impeach- 
ment, based  upon  a  fearless  discharge  of  duty.  He  could  af- 
ford to  be  just,  for,  like  George  Clinton,  he  had  early  em- 
braced the  cause  of  the  Colony  against  the  Crown.  From 
an  Albany  alderman  he  became  a  maker  of  the  State  Consti- 
tution, and  from  a  writer  of  patriotic  essays,  he  shone  as  an 
active  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  Together  with 
John  Jay  and  Robert  R.  Livingston,  he  had  obstructed  the 
passage  of  Lord  Howe's  ships  up  the  Hudson,  and  with  Gen- 
eral Schuyler  he  devised  measures  to  repel  the  British  from 
the  northern  and  western  frontier.  He  had  helped  to  fix  the 
dividing  line  between  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  and,  as 
one  of  the  Council  of  Administration,  he  governed  southern 
New  York  from  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  until  the  as- 
sembling of  the  Legislature. 

Having  decided  to  go  outside  his  own  party,  Hamilton 
made  no  mistake  in  picking  his  man.  If  Clinton  was  the 
Hampden  of  the  colonial  period,  Robert  Yates  could  well 
be  called  its  Pym.  He  had  toleration  as  well  as  patriotism. 
But  he  also  had  an  itching  desire  for  office.  Some  one  has 
said  that  the  close  connection  between  man  and  a  child  is 
never  more  clearly  illustrated  than  in  the  joy  and  pride 
which  the  wisest  statesman  feels  in  the  wearing  of  a  ribbon 
or  a  star.  It  could  not  be  said  of  Robert  Yates  then,  as  it 
was  said,  with  good  reason,  six  j^ears  later,  that  his  desire 
for  office  extinguished  his  devotion  to  party  and  his  charac- 
ter for  political  consistency,  but  it  was  openly  charged  that, 
upon  the  suggestion  of  Hamilton,  he  urged  the  grand  jury 
to  support  the  Federal  Constitution  in  order  to  strengthen 
himself  with  the  Federalists.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not, 
Yates'  previous  devotion  to  the  anti-Federalist  party  set  his 
present  conduct  in  sharp  contrast  to  that  of  other  distin- 
guished anti-Federalist  statesmen  of  the  time — to  men  like 
Samuel  Jones  and  Melancthon  Smith,  who  accepted  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Poughkeepsie  convention,  but  supported  George 
Clinton.    ''Men,  not  principles,  are  involved,"  they  declared. 

All  that  we  know  of  Yates  would  seem  to  deny  his  sur- 


42  CLINTON'S   FOUKTH   TEEM  [Chap.  v. 

render  of  principle,  or  liis  condescension  to  any  act  of  base- 
ness, to  obtain  oflSce.  It  was  indeed  a  question  whether 
Clinton,  or  Hamilton  through  Yates,  should  control  the 
state  government;  but  the  gubernatorial  contest  involved 
more  than  that.  The  new  government,  soon  to  be  placed  on 
trial,  needed  the  help  of  sympathetic  governors  and  legisla- 
tures, and  Clinton  and  his  supporters,  forced  to  accept  the 
Constitution,  could  hardly  be  regarded  as  its  wisest  and 
safest  guardians.  From  Hamilton's  standpoint,  therefore,  it 
was  more  principle  than  men.  However  agreeable  to  him  it 
might  be  to  defeat  and  humiliate  Clinton,  greater  satisfac- 
tion must  spring  from  the  consciousness  that  while  in  its 
leading-strings,  at  least,  the  general  government  would  have 
the  hearty  support  of  New  York. 

Hamilton's  great  coalition,  intended  to  work  such  won- 
ders, boasted  many  brilliant  names.  Of  the  younger  men 
Robert  Troup,  of  Hamilton's  age,  an  early  friend  of  Burr, 
took  a  most  conspicuous  part,  while  among  the  older  mem- 
bers of  this  galaxy  was  James  Duane,  a  lawyer  of  rare  abil- 
ity, the  first  ma3'or  of  New  York,  for  ten  years  continuously 
in  the  Continental  Congress,  a  man  of  great  force,  of  large 
wealth,  and  superb  character.  He  was  in  his  forties  when 
Hamilton,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  won  his  heart  by  a  single 
speech,  denouncing  the  act  of  Parliament  which  closed  the 
port  of  Boston.  The  most  notable  man  in  the  coalition, 
next  to  Hamilton  and  Jay,  was  Robert  R.  Livingston,  now 
Hamilton's  devoted  friend,  before  long  to  be  his  bitter  en- 
emy. He  was  still  young,  little  more  than  forty,  but  in 
everything  he  was  bold  and  skilful,  vigorous  as  a  writer,  elo- 
quent as  a  speaker,  deeply  learned  as  a  jurist,  and  rich  in 
scholarship.  Of  the  same  age  as  Livingston  was  William 
Duer,2  who  started  at  eighteen  as  an  aide  to  Lord  Clive  in 
India.  Duer  was  at  one  time  the  most  useful  man  in  Amer- 
ica.   Nobody  could  cheat  him.    As  soon  as  Hamilton  became 

*  It  was  his  son,  William  Alexander  Duer,  the  brilliant  and  ac- 
complished writer,  who  presided  for  thirteen  years  with  such  dis- 
tinguished ability  over  Columbia  College. 


1789]  A    GALAXY   OF    STATESMEN  43 

secretary  of  the  treasury,  he  made  Duer  assistant  secretary, 
an  oflSce  which  he  held  with  credit  until  1790,  when  he  re- 
signed to  become  the  chief  of  a  ring  of  speculators,  who,  two 
years  later,  left  him  insolvent  and  in  jail.  Hamilton's  coali- 
tion also  furnished  the  only  instance  of  the  political  associa- 
tion of  himself  and  Burr,  although  Burr's  support  of  Yates  is 
said  to  have  been  personal  rather  than  political.  The  story 
is  that  Burr,  seeking  admission  to  the  bar  after  reading  law 
less  than  a  year,  induced  Judge  Yates  to  suspend  the  rule 
requiring  three  years  of  study,  because  of  the  applicant's 
term  as  a  soldier,  a  service  that  laid  the  foundation  of  a  last- 
ing friendship. 

On  the  opposite  side  were  many  men  who  live  in  history 
as  builders  of  the  Empire  State.  None  belong  to  the  gallery 
of  national  characters,  perhaps,  but  John  Lansing,  Living- 
ston's successor  as  chancellor,  and  Samuel  Jones,^  the  first 
state  comptroller,  known,  by  common  consent,  as  the  father 
of  the  New  York  bar,  find  places  in  the  list  of  New  York's 
ablest  statesmen.  To  this  memorable  company  also  be- 
longed Melancthon  Smith,  the  head  of  the  anti-Federalist 
forces  at  the  Poughkeepsie  convention,  and  Gilbert  Living- 
ston of  Dutchess,  whose  one  patriotic  address  was  the  last 
blow  needed  to  ratify  the  Constitution.  He  was  not,  like 
Smith,  a  great  debater,  but  his  ready  eloquence  classed  him 
among  the  orators  who  were  destined  to  live  in  the  memory 
of  a  later  generation.  Beside  him  was  James  Clinton, 
brother  of  the  Governor  and  father  of  DeWitt  Clinton.  A 
soldier  by  profession,  he  had  taken  part  in  several  important 
battles  and  marches,  charging  with  Bradstreet  at  the  capture 
of  Fort  Frontenac,  following  the  lamented  Montgomery  to 
Quebec,  and  serving  with  Sullivan  in  his  famous  expedition 

'  "No  one,"  said  Chancellor  Kent,  writing  of  Samuel  Jones,  "sur- 
passed him  in  clearness  of  intellect  and  in  moderation  and  sim- 
plicity of  character;  no  one  equalled  him  in  his  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  technical  rules  and  doctrines  of  real  property,  and  his 
familiarity  with  the  skilful  and  elaborate,  but  now  obselete  and 
mysterious,  black-letter  learning  of  the  common  law." 


44  CLINTON'S   FOUKTH   TEEM  [Chap.  v. 

against  the  Indians.  Finally,  he  shared  in  the  glory  of  be- 
ing with  Washington  at  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis. 
He  seems  to  have  been  the  real  soldier  of  the  family,  blend- 
ing the  strong,  active  powers  of  the  Clinton  mind  with  the 
gentler  virtues  which  made  him  as  sympathetic  on  the  field  as 
he  was  affectionate  in  the  home. 

Thus  the  contest  between  Yates  and  Clinton,  although  the 
first  real  political  conflict  in  the  history  of  the  State,  became 
one  of  the  sharpest  and  most  bitterly  fought.  For  six  weeks 
the  atmosphere  was  thick  and  hot  with  political  passion. 
Veteran  observers  declared  that  their  generation  had  seen 
nothing  like  it.  But  the  arguments  of  Duer,  the  powerful 
influence  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  the  leadership  of  Tlamil- 
ton,  and  the  phenomenal  popularity  of  John  Jay,  could  not 
win  the  voters  who  saw  nothing  more  in  the  arrangement 
than  a  question  of  individual  preference,  and  while  Yates 
carried  the  western  district  by  a  large  majority  and  held 
his  own  in  the  southern,  Clinton's  home  county  gave  him 
1093  out  of  1245  votes,  making  his  majority  429  in  a  total 
vote  of  12,353. 

The  call  for  the  Governor  was  so  close  that  he  quickly 
prepared  for  a  repetition  of  the  contest  in  1792.  The  inau- 
guration of  Washington  on  April  30  had  given  Hamilton 
control  of  the  federal  offices  in  New  York,  and,  although  of 
trifling  importance  compared  to  state  patronage,  they  were 
used  to  strengthen  federalism,  and,  if  possible,  to  destroy 
Clinton.  John  Jay  became  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  James  Duane  judge  of  the  District  Court,  Richard 
Harrison  United  States  attorney,  and  William  S.  Smith 
United  States  marshal.  It  was  a  brilliant  array  of  talent 
and  legal  learning.  Of  the  lights  and  ornaments  of  the  law 
in  his  day,  Richard  Harrison  excelled  in  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  its  intricacies  and  mysteries.  Added  to  these  officials 
were  Rufus  King  and  Philip  Schuyler,  United  States  sena- 
tors, and  three  members  of  Congress,  with  Egbert  Benson 
at  their  hearl.  As  secretary  of  the  treasury  and  the  trusted 
friend  of  the  President,  Hamilton  had  also  multiplied  his 
personal  influence. 


1789]  AAEON    BUKR  45 

Governor  Clinton  felt  the  full  force  of  the  Federalist  com- 
bination, the  fear  of  which  had  intensified  his  hostility  to 
the  Union ;  but  he  governed  his  conduct  with  the  toleration 
and  foresight  of  a  master  politician.  He  declined  to  punish 
those  who  had  deserted  his  standard,  refusing  to  accept  Rob- 
ert Yates'  apostaey  as  sufficient  cause  to  bar  his  promotion 
as  chief  justice,  and  appointing  to  the  vacancy  John  Lan- 
sing, Jr.,  who,  although  a  strong  anti-Federalist,  had  already 
shown  an  independence  of  political  domination. 

But  the  master-stroke  of  Clinton's  diplomacy  displayed 
itself  in  the  appointment  of  Aaron  Burr  as  attorney-general. 
After  Burr  left  the  army  ''with  the  character  of  a  true 
knight,"  as  John  Adams  put  it,  he  began  the  practice  of  law 
at  Albany.  Later  he  removed  to  New  York,  taking  up  his 
home  in  Maiden  Lane.  Thus  far  his  political  career,  limited 
to  two  terms  in  the  Legislature,  had  been  insignificant.  Dur- 
ing the  great  controversy  over  the  Federal  Constitution  he  re- 
mained silent.  His  silence,  however,  was  the  silence  of  con- 
cealment. He  shared  no  confidences,  he  exploited  no  prin- 
ciples, he  did  nothing  in  the  open.  He  lived  in  an  air  of 
mystery,  writing  letters  in  cipher,  using  messengers  instead 
of  the  mails,  and  maintaining  espionage  upon  the  movements 
of  others.  Of  himself  he  wrote  to  Theodosia,  ''he  is  a  grave, 
silent,  strange  sort  of  animal,  inasmuch  that  we  know  not 
what  to  make  of  him."  In  the  political  parlance  of  to-day, 
his  methods  savoured  of  the  "still  hunt,"  and  in  their  exer- 
cise he  exhibited  the  powers  of  a  past-master  in  stirring  up 
men's  prejudices,  and  creating  divisions  among  his  rivals; 
but  his  methods,  whether  practised  in  law  or  in  politics, 
were  neither  modern  nor  moral.  He  marshalled  forces  with 
equal  celerity  under  either  flag. 

Shortly  after  Burr  moved  into  Maiden  Lane,  Hamilton 
made  his  home  in  Wall  Street.  Their  first  meeting,  which 
occurred  on  the  road  from  Harlem  bridge  to  White  Plains 
during  the  disastrous  retreat  of  Washington's  army  from 
Manhattan  in  September,  1776,  had  been  characterised  by 
mutual  dislike.  Burr,  with  the  rank  of  major,  acted  as  aide 
to  General  Putnam ;  Hamilton,  as  an  officer  of  artillery,  was 


46  CLINTON'S   FOUKTH   TERM  [Chap.  v. 

soon  to  become  an  aide  to  Washington.  Both  were  young 
then — Hamilton  not  jet  twenty,  Burr  scarcely  twenty-one; 
yet  their  character,  then  fully  developed,  shines  out  in  their 
estimate  of  the  commander-in-chief.  Burr  thought  Wash- 
ington inferior  as  an  officer,  and  weak,  though  honest,  as 
a  man;  Hamilton  thought  him  a  great  soldier  and  a  great 
statesman,  upon  whose  services  the  welfare  of  the  country 
largely  depended.  Burr's  prejudices  settled  into  positive 
dislike ;  Hamilton's  appreciation  voiced  the  sentiment  of  the 
people  and  the  judgment  of  posterity. 

There  is  a  legend  that  from  the  first,  destiny  seemed  de- 
termined to  oppose  the  genius  and  fame  of  Hamilton  with 
the  genius  and  fame  of  Aaron  Burr.  It  is  certainly  a  re- 
markable coincidence  that  two  men,  born  without  the  State, 
so  nearly  of  an  age,  so  similar  in  brilliant  attainments,  so 
notably  distinguished  in  charm  of  manner  and  phenomenal 
accomplishments,  and  so  strikingly  alike  in  ripeness  of  intel- 
ligence and  bent  of  ambition,  should  happen  to  have  lived  at 
the  same  time,  in  the  same  city,  and  become  members  of  the 
same  profession;  yet  it  is  not  surprising  that  these  men 
should  prove  formidable  rivals  and  deadly  foes,  since  differ- 
ence in  character  was  far  more  real  than  resemblance  of 
mental  attainments.  Both  were  fearless  and  brave,  but  the 
one  was  candid,  frank  and  resolute ;  the  other  subtle,  crafty 
and  adventurous.  Perhaps  their  only  common  characteristic 
was  an  ungoverned  admiration  for  the  charms  of  women, 
though,  unlike  Burr,  Hamilton  neither  bragged  of  his 
amours,  nor  boasted  that  success  attended  his  pursuit  of 
pleasure. 

It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  in  appointing  Burr  attor- 
ney-general, Clinton  did  not  have  in  mind  the  necessity  of 
securing  to  the  ranks  of  the  anti-Federalists  all  talented 
and  spirited  young  men ;  but  it  is  none  the  less  evident  that 
Clinton  was  thinking  more  of  himself  than  of  his  party. 
Burr  figured  as  an  ugly  opponent  in  the  recent  campaign. 
Besides,  he  possessed  the  happy  faculty  of  surrounding  him- 
self with  young  men  who  recognised  in  him  a  superlative 


1790]  THKEE  POWERFUL  FAMILIES  47 

combination  of  bravery,  chivalry,  and  ability.  Hamilton 
called  them  "Burr's  myrmidons,"  but  Theodosia,  with  a 
daughter's  devotion  and  diplomatic  zeal,  entitled  them  "the 
Tenth  Legion."  They  had  joined  Burr  when  a  violent  Whig 
in  1784,  sending  him  to  the  Assembly  for  two  terms;  they 
had  rallied  under  his  call  to  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  attracting 
the  fierce  fire  of  Hamilton;  and  they  had  broken  jjarty  bonds 
to  support  Robert  Yates  because  of  their  chief's  personal 
friendship. 

Such  a  man  would  attract  the  attention  of  any  political 
manager,  and  although  Clinton  up  to  this  time  had  had  no 
particular  relations  with  Burr,  the  latter's  enthusiastic  sup- 
port of  Yates  accentuated  his  political  value.  In  after  years 
Burr  declared  that  Clinton  had  always  been  his  rival,  and 
Clinton  no  less  frankly  avowed  his  distrust  of  Burr,  charg- 
ing him  with  always  being  "for  sale ;"  but  Burr's  rivalry  and 
Clinton's  distrust  do  not  date  back  to  1790. 

If  Clinton  thought  himself  fortunate  in  gaining  Burr,  he 
was  still  more  fortunate  in  the  defection  of  the  influential 
Livingstons.  What  Caesar  said  of  Gaul  used  to  be  said  of 
the  Empire  State,  that  all  New  York  was  divided  into  three 
parts — the  Clintons,  the  Livingstons,  and  the  Schuylers. 
Parton  said  "the  Clintons  had  power,  the  Livingstons  had 
numbers,  and  the  Schuylers  had  Hamilton."*   In  1788  seven 

*  James  Parton,  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  Vol.  1,  p.  169.  "  New  York, 
much  more  than  New  England,  was  the  home  of  natural  leaders 
and  family  alliances.  John  Jay,  the  governor;  the  Schuylers,  led 
by  Philip  Schujier  and  his  son-in-law,  Alexander  Hamilton;  the 
Livingstons,  led  by  Eobert  E.  Livingston,  with  a  promising  younger 
brother,  Edward,  nearly  twenty  years  his  junior,  and  a  brother-in- 
law,  John  Armstrong,  besides  Samuel  Osgood,  Morgan  Lewis  and 
Smith  Thompson,  other  connections  by  marriage  with  the  great 
Livingston  stock;  the  Clintons,  headed  by  George,  the  governor, 
and  supported  by  the  energy  of  DeWitt,  his  nephew, — all  these 
Jays,  Schuylers,  Livingstons,  Clintons,  had  they  lived  in  New  Eng- 
land, would  probably  have  united  in  the  support  of  their  class; 
but  being  citizens  of  New  York  they  quarrelled." — Henry  Adams, 
History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  pp.  108-09. 


48  CLINTON'S   FOUETH   TERM  [Chap.  v. 

members  of  the  Livingston  family,  with  the  Schuylers,  had 
overthrown  the  Clintons,  and  turned  the  Confederation  into 
the  Union.  Robert  R.  Livingston,  standing  at  their  head, 
was  the  exponent  of  a  liberal  policy  toward  all  American 
citizens,  and  the  champion  of  a  broader  national  life.  His 
associates  were  the  leading  Federalists;  his  principles  were 
the  pillars  of  his  party;  and  his  ambitions  centred  in  the 
success  and  strength  of  his  country. 

Prudence,  therefore,  if  no  higher  motive,  required  that 
the  Livingstons  be  not  overlooked  in  the  division  of  federal 
patronage.  There  was  much  of  it  to  divide.  Besides  cabinet 
positions  and  judicial  appointments,  the  foreign  service  of- 
fered rare  opportunities  to  a  few  accomplished  statesmen 
and  recognised  scholars.  Robert  R.  Livingston,  as  chancel- 
lor of  New  York,  stood  in  line  of  promotion  for  chief  justice 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  but  John  Jay  stood 
nearer  to  Hamilton,  just  as  Fhilip  Schuyler  did  when 
United  States  senators  were  chosen.  Other  honourable 
and  most  desirable  positions,  however,  were  open.  John 
Quincy  Adams  thought  a  mission  to  England  or  France  bet- 
ter than  the  Cabinet,  but  Gouverneur  Morris  went  to  France, 
Thomas  Pinckney  to  England,  William  Short  to  Spain,  and 
David  Humphreys  to  Portugal.  The  Livingstons  were  left 
•out. 

Hamilton's  funding  system,  especially  the  proposed  as- 
jsumption  of  state  debts,  then  dividing  the  public  mind,  af- 
forded plausible  cause  for  opposing  federalism;  and  osten- 
sibly for  this  reason,  the  Livingstons  ceased  to  be  Feder- 
alists. Some  of  the  less  conspicuous  members,  residents  of 
Columbia  County,  continued  their  adherence,  but  the  states- 
men Avho  give  the  family  its  name  in  history  wanted  noth- 
ing more  of  a  party  whose  head  was  a  "young  adventurer," 
a  man  "not  native  to  the  soil,"  a  "merchant's  clerk  from  the 
West  Indies."  The  story  is  that  the  Chancellor  convened 
the  family  and  made  the  separation  so  complete  that  Wash- 
ington's subsequent  offer  of  the  mission  to  France  failed  to 
secure  his  return. 


1791J  BUER    DEFEATS    SCHUYLER  49 

The  first  notice  of  the  Livingston  break  was  in  the  election 
of  a  United  States  senator  in  1791.  Philip  Schuyler,  Hamil- 
ton's father-in-law,  confidently  expected  a  re-election.  His 
selection  for  the  short  term  was  with  this  understanding. 
But  several  members  of  the  Assembly,  nominally  Federalists, 
were  friendly  to  Clinton,  who  preferred  Aaron  Burr  to 
Schuyler  because  of  Hamilton's  influence  over  him;^  and 
when  the  Governor  promised  Morgan  Lewis,  the  Chancel- 
lor's brother-in-law.  Burr's  place  as  attorney-general,  Liv- 
ingston's disposition  to  injure  Hamilton  became  intensified, 
and  to  the  disappointment  of  Schuyler,  the  vote  of  the  Legis- 
lature disclosed  a  small  majority  for  Burr. 

It  is  easy  to  conjecture  that  the  haughty,  unpopular,  aris- 
tocratic old  General®  would  not  be  as  acceptable  as  a  young 
man  of  thirty-five,  fascinating  in  manner,  gifted  in  speech, 
and  not  yet  openly  and  ofl'ensively  partisan;  but  it  needed 
something  more  than  this  charm  of  personality  to  line  up 
the  hard-headed,  self-reliant  legislator  against  Hamilton  and 
Philip  Schuyler,  and  Burr  found  it  in  his  appeal  to  Clinton, 
and  in  the  clever  brother-in-law  suggestion  to  Livingston. 

The  defeat  of  Schuyler  was  a  staggering  blow  to  Hamil- 
ton. The  great  statesman  had  achieved  success  as  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  but  as  a  political  manager,  his  lack  of  tact, 
impatience  of  control,  and  infirmity  of  temper,  had  crippled 
the  organisation.  In  less  than  three  years  the  party  had 
lost  a  United  States  senator,  suflfered  the  separation  of  a 
family  vastly  more  important  than  federal  appointees,  and 
sacrificed  the  prestige  of  victory,  so  necessary  to  political 
success. 

®In  a  letter  to  Theodoras  Bailey,  Chancellor  Kent,  then  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Assembly,  expressed  the  opinion  that  "things  look 
auspicious  for  Burr.  It  will  be  in  some  measure  a  question  of 
northern  and  southern  interests.  The  objection  of  Schuyler's  be- 
ing- related  to  the  Secretary  has  weight." — William  Kent,  Memoirs 
and  Letters  of  James  Kent,  p.  39. 

*  "The  defeat  of  Schuyler  was  attributed  partly  to  the  unpre- 
possessing austerity  of  his  manner." — Ibid.,  p.  38. 


CHAPTER   VI 

GEORGE  CLINTON  DEFEATS  JOHN  JAY 

1792-1795 

Burr's  rapid  advancement  gave  full  rein  to  his  ambition. 
Not  content  with  the  exalted  oflSce  to  which  he  had  suddenly 
fallen  heir,  he  now  began  looking  for  higher  honours;  and 
when  it  came  time  to  select  candidates  for  governor,  he  in- 
voked the  tactics  that  won  him  a  place  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  He  found  a  few  anti-Federalists  willing  to  talk  of 
him  as  a  stronger  candidate  than  George  Clinton,  and  a  few 
Federalists  who  claimed  that  the  moderate  men  of  both 
parties  would  rally  to  his  support.  In  the  midst  of  the  talk 
Isaac  Ledyard  wrote  Hamilton  that  '^a  tide  was  likely  to 
make  strongly  for  Mr.  Burr,"^  and  James  Watson,  in  a  sim- 
ilar strain,  argued  that  Burr's  chances,  if  supported  by  Fed- 
eralists, would  be  "strong."^ 

Clinton's  firm  hold  upon  his  party  quickly  checked  Burr's 
hope  from  that  quarter,  but  the  increasing  difficulty  among 
Federalists  to  find  a  candidate  offered  opportunity  for 
Burr's  peculiar  tactics,  until  his  adherents  were  everywhere 
— on  the  bench,  in  the  Legislature,  in  the  drawing-rooms,  the 
coffee-houses,  and  the  streets.  Hamilton  had  only  to  present 
him  and  say,  "Here  is  your  candidate,"  and  Aaron  Burr 
would  cheerfully  have  opposed  the  friend  who,  within  less 
than  two  years,  had  appointed  him  attorney-general  and 
elected  him  United  States  senator.  But  Hamilton  deliber- 
ately snuffed  him  out.  The  great  Federalist  had  finally  in- 
duced John  Jay  to  become  the  candidate  of  his  party.    This 

*  James  Parton,  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  Vol,  1,  p.  187. 
'IMd.,  188. 

50 


1792]  JAY'S   POPULARITY  51 

was  on  February  13,  1792.  Two  days  later,  the  anti-Feder- 
alists named  George  Clinton  and  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  the 
old  ticket  which  had  done  service  for  fifteen  years. 

In  inducing  John  Jay  to  lead  his  party,  Hamilton  made 
a  good  start.  Heretofore  Jay  had  steadily  refused  to  be- 
come a  candidate  for  governor.  "That  the  office  of  the  first 
magistrate  of  the  State,"  he  wrote,  May  16,  1777,  "will  be 
more  respectable  as  well  as  more  lucrative  than  the  place  I 
now  fill  is  very  apparent;  but  my  object  in  the  course  of  the 
l)resent  great  contest  neither  has  been  nor  will  be  either 
rank  or  money."^  After  his  return  from  Europe,  when  Gov- 
ernor Clinton's  division  of  patronage  and  treatment  of  roy- 
alists had  become  intensely  objectionable,  Jay  was  again 
urged  to  stand  as  a  candidate,  but  he  answered  that  "a  ser- 
vant should  not  leave  a  good  old  master  for  the  sake  of 
more  pay  or  a  prettier  livery."*  If  this  was  good  reasoning 
in  1786  and  1789,  when  he  was  secretary  of  foreign  affairs, 
it  was  better  reasoning  in  1792,  when  he  was  chief  justice  of 
the  United  States;  but  the  pleadings  of  Hamilton  seem  to 
have  set  a  presidential  bee  buzzing,  or,  at  least,  to  have 
started  ambition  in  a  mind  until  now  without  ambition.  At 
any  rate.  Jay,  suddenly  and  without  any  apparent  reason, 
consented  to  exchange  the  most  exalted  office  next  to  Presi- 
dent, to  chance  the  New  York  governorship. 

There  had  never  been  a  time  since  John  Jay  entered  pub- 
lic life  that  he  was  not  the  most  popular  man  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  In  1788  he  received  for  delegate  to  the  Pough- 
keepsie  convention,  twenty-seven  hundred  and  thirty-five 
votes  out  of  a  total  of  twenty -eight  hundred  and  thirty-three. 
John  Adams  called  him  "a  Roman"  because  he  resembled 
Cato  more  than  any  of  his  contemporaries.  Jay's  life  di- 
vided itself  into  three  distinct  epochs  of  twenty-eight  years 
each — study  and  the  practice  of  law,  public  employment, 
and  retirement.  During  the  years  of  uninterrupted  public 
life,  he  ran  the  gamut  of  office-holding.  It  is  a  long 
'  William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  162. 
*Ibid.,  p.  198. 


52  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap,  vi, 

catalogue,  including  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress^ 
framer  of  the  New  York  Constitution,  chief  justice  of  the 
New  York  Supreme  Court,  president  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, minister  to  Spain,  member  of  the  Peace  Commission, 
secretary  of  foreign  affairs,  chief  justice  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  negotiator  of  the  Jay  treaty,  and  finally  gov- 
ernor of  New  York.  No  other  American  save  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  John  Marshall  ever  served  his  country  so  con- 
tinuously in  such  exalted  and  responsible  place.  On  his  re- 
turn from  Europe  after  an  absence  of  five  years,  Adams 
said  he  returned  to  his  country  "like  a  bee  to  its  hive,  with 
both  legs  loaded  with  merit  and  honour."^ 

Jay  accepted  the  nomination  for  governor  in  1792,  on  con- 
dition that  he  be  not  asked  to  take  part  in  the  campaign, 
'*I  made  it  a  rule,"  he  wrote  afterward,  "neither  to  begin 
correspondence  nor  conversation  upon  the  subject."®  Ac- 
cordingly, while  New  York  was  deeply  stirred,  the  Chief 
Justice  leisurely  rode  over  his  circuit,  out  of  hearing  and 
out  of  sight  of  the  political  disturbance,  apparently  indiffer- 
ent to  the  result. 

The  real  political  campaign  which  is  still  periodically 
made  in  New  York,  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  beginning  in 
April,  1792.  Seldom  has  an  election  been  contested  with 
such  prodigality  of  partisan  fury.  The  rhetoric  of  abuse 
was  vigorous  and  unrestrained ;  the  campaign  lie  active  and 
ingenious;  the  arraignment  of  class  against  class  sedulous 
and  adroit,  and  the  excitement  most  violent  and  memorable. 
If  a  weapon  of  political  warfare  failed  to  be  handled  with 
craft  and  with  courage,  its  skilful  use  was  unknown. 

Indeed,  if  any  one  doubts  that  it  was  a  real  time  of  politi- 
cal upheaval,  he  has  only  to  glance  at  local  histories.  Feder- 
alists and  anti-Federalists  were  alike  convulsed  by  a  move- 
ment which  was  the  offspring  of  a  genuine  and  irresistible 
enthusiasm  of  that  strong,  far-reaching  kind  that  makes 
epochs  in  the  history  of  politics.    The  people  having  cut  loose 

» To  Thos.  Barclay,  May  24,  1784,  Bist.  Mag.,  1869,  p.  358. 
•William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  289. 


1792]  ARISTOCKAT   AND   DEMOCRAT  5$ 

from  royalty,  now  proposed  cutting  loose  from  silk  stock- 
ings, knee  breeches,  powdered  hair,  pigtails,  shoe  buckles^ 
and  x'uffled  shirts — the  emblems  of  nobility.  Perhaps  they 
did  not  then  care  for  the  red  plush  waistcoats,  the  yarn 
stockings,  and  the  slippers  down  at  the  heel,  which  Jefferson 
was  to  carry  into  the  White  House;  but  in  their  effort  to 
overthrow  the  tyranny  of  the  past,  they  were  beginning  to 
demand  broader  suffrage  and  less  ceremony,  a  larger,  freer 
man,  and  less  caste.  To  them,  therefore.  Jay  and  Clinton 
represented  the  aristocrat  and  the  democrat.  Jay,  they  said, 
had  been  nurtured  in  the  lap  of  ease,  Clinton  had  worked 
his  way  from  the  most  humble  rank;  Jay  luxuriated  in 
splendid  courts,  Clinton  dwelt  in  the  home  of  the  lowly 
son  of  toil;  Jay  was  the  choice  of  the  rich,  Clinton  the  man 
of  the  people ;  Jay  relied  upon  the  support  of  the  President 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Clinton  upon  the  poor 
villager  and  the  toiling  farmer. 

Newspapers  charged  Jay  with  saying  that  "there  ought  to 
be  in  America  only  two  sorts  of  people,  one  very  rich,  the 
other  very  poor,"^  and  to  support  the  misrepresentation, 
they  quoted  his  favourite  maxim  that  "those  who  own  the 
country  ought  to  govern  it,"  pointing  to  the  State  Constitu- 
tion which  he  drafted,  to  prove  that  only  the  well-to-do  could 
vote.  The  Dutch,  largely  the  slave  holders  of  the  State,  ac- 
cused hira  of  wishing  to  rob  them  by  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Dressed  in  other  rhetorical  clothes,  these  stories  did  service 
again  in  1795  and  1708. 

But  the  assumption  of  state  debts,  and  Hamilton's  finan- 
cial system,  became  the  fiercest  objects  of  attack.  To  them 
were  traced  the  "reign  of  speculators"  that  flowered  in  the 
year  1791.  "Bank  bubbles,  tontines,  lotteries,  monopolies, 
usury,  gambling  and  swindling  abound,"  said  the  New  York 
Journal;  "poverty  in  the  country,  luxury  in  the  capitals, 
corruption  and  usurpation  in  the  national  councils."  Ham- 
ilton's system  had  given  the  deepest  stab  to  the  hopes  of  the 
anti-Federalists,  since  it  taught  people  to  look  to  the  Union 
'George  Pellew,  Life  of  John  Jay,  p.  275. 


54  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap.  vi. 

rather  than  to  the  State.  Internal  taxes  and  import  duties 
were  paid  to  the  United  States;  coin  was  minted 
by  the  United  States;  paper  money  issued  by  the 
United  States;  letters  carried  and  delivered  by  the  United 
States;  and  state  debts  assumed  by  the  United  States.  All 
this  had  a  tendency  to  break  state  attachments  and  state  im- 
portance ;  and  in  striking  back,  Republican  orators  branded 
the  reports  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  as  ''dangerous 
to  liberty,"  the  assumption  of  debts  as  "a  clever  device  for 
enslaving  the  people,"  and  the  whole  fiscal  system  "a  dishon- 
est scheme."  The  failure  and  imprisonment  of  William 
Duer,  until  recently  Hamilton's  trusted  assistant,  followed 
by  riots  in  New  York  City,  gave  colour  to  the  charge,  and,  al- 
though the  most  bitter  opponents  of  the  great  Federalist 
in  no  wise  connected  him  with  any  corrupt  transaction,  yet 
in  the  spring  of  1792  Hamilton,  the  friend  and  backer  of 
Jay,  was  the  most  roundly  abused  man  in  the  campaign. 

The  Federalists  resented  misrepresentation  with  misrepre- 
sentation. Clinton's  use  of  patronage,  his  opposition  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  and  the  impropriety  of  having  a  mili- 
tary governor  in  time  of  i»eace,  objections  left  over  from 
1789,  still  figured  as  set  pieces  in  rhetorical  fireworks;  but 
the  great  red  light,  burned  at  every  meeting  throughout  the 
State,  exposed  Governor  Clinton  as  secretly  profiting  by  the 
sale  of  public  lands.  The  Legislature  of  1791  authorised  the 
five  state  ofiicers,  acting  as  Commissioners  of  the  Land  Of- 
fice, to  sell  unappropriated  lands  in  such  parcels  and  on  such 
terms  as  they  deemed  expedient,  and  under  this  power  5,542,- 
173  acres  returned  |1, 030,433.  Some  of  the  land  brought 
three  shillings  per  acre,  some  two  shillings  six  pence,  some 
one  shilling,  but  Alexander  McComb  picked  up  3,635,200 
acres  at  eight  pence.  McComb  was  a  friend  of  Clinton. 
More  than  that,  he  was  a  real  estate  dealer  and  speculator. 
In  the  legislative  investigation  that  followed,  resolutions 
condemning  the  commissioners'  conduct  tangled  up  Clinton 
in  a  division  of  the  profits,  and  sent  McComb  to  jail.  This 
was  a  sweet  morsel  for  the  Federalists.     It  mattered  not 


1792]  LEADERS    OF    THE    FUTURE  55 

that  the  Governor  denied  it;  that  McComb  contradicted  it; 
that  no  proof  supported  it;  or  that  the  AsKsembly  acquitted 
him  by  a  party  vote  of  thirty-five  to  twenty;  the  story  did 
ett'ective  campaign  service,  and  lived  to  torture  Aaron  Burr, 
one  of  the  commissioners,  ten  years  afterward.  Burr  tried 
to  escape  responsibility  by  pleading  absence  when  the  con- 
tracts were  made;  but  the  question  never  ceased  coming  up 
— if  absence  included  all  the  months  of  McComb's  negotia- 
tions, what  time  did  the  Attorney-General  give  to  public 
business? 

It  was  a  deep  grief  to  Jay  that  the  Livingstons  opposed 
him.  The  Chancellor  and  Edward  were  his  wife's  cousins, 
Brockholst  her  brother.  Brockholst  had  been  Jay's  private 
secretary  at  the  embassy  in  Madrid,  but  now,  to  use  a  fa- 
mous expression  of  that  day,  "the  3'oung  man's  head  was  on 
fire,"  and  violence  characterised  his  political  feelings  and 
conduct.  Satirical  letters  falsely  attributed  to  Jay  fanned 
the  sparks  of  the  Livingston  opposition  into  a  bright  blaze, 
and,  although  the  Chief  Justice  denied  the  insinuation,  the 
Chancellor  gave  battle  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  new 
convert. 

As  one  glances  through  the  list  of  workers  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1792,  he  is  reminded  that  the  juniors  or  be- 
ginners soon  came  to  occupy  higher  and  more  influen- 
tial positions  than  some  of  their  elders  and  leaders.  DeWitt 
Clinton,  for  instance,  not  yet  in  office,  was  soon  to  be  in  the 
Assembly,  in  the  State  Senate,  and  in  the  United  States 
Senate — a  greater  force  than  any  man  of  his  time  in  New 
York,  save  Hamilton.  James  Kent  had  just  entered  the 
Assembly.  As  a  student  in  Egbert  Benson's  office,  his  re- 
markable industry  impressed  clients  and  teacher,  but  when 
his  voice  sounded  the  praises  of  John  Jay,  few  could  have 
anticipated  that  this  young  man,  small  in  stature,  vivacious 
in  speech,  quick  in  action,  with  dark  eyes  and  a  swarthy  com- 
plexion, was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most  famous 
jurists  in  a  century.  Ambrose  Spencer  had  not  yet  scored 
his  first  political  honour,  but  his  herculean  frame  and  stately 


56  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap.  vi. 

presence,  with  eyes  and  complexion  darker  than  Kent's, 
are  to  be  seen  leading  in  every  political  contest  for  more 
than  forty  years. 

There  were  also  Smith  Thompson,  taught  in  the  law  by 
Chancellor  Kent  and  tutored  in  politics  by  George  Clinton, 
who  was  to  follow  the  former  Chief  Justice  and  end  his  days 
on  the  United  States  Supreme  bench;  Joseph  C.  Yates, 
founder  of  Union  College,  and  Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  scientist 
and  politician,  who  has  been  called  the  Franklin  of  New 
York.  Younger  than  these,  but  equally  alert,  was  Cadwal- 
lader  A,  Colden,  grandson  of  the  royal  lieutenant-governor 
of  Stamp  Act  days.  He  was  now  only  twenty-two,  just  be- 
ginning at  the  bar,  but  destined  to  be  the  intimate  friend 
of  Robert  Fulton,  a  famous  leader  of  a  famous  bar,  and  a 
political  chieftain  of  a  distinguished  career.* 

At  the  election,  the  people  gave  Jay  a  majority  of  their 
votes;  but  at  the  count,  a  m.ajority  of  the  state  canvassers 
gave  Clinton  the  governorship.  This  was  the  first  vicious 
party  precedent  established  in  the  Empire  State.  It  has  had 
many  successors  at  the  polls,  in  the  Legislature,  and  at  the 
primaries,  but  none  bolder  and  more  harmful,  or  ruder  and 
more  outrageously  wrong.  Lender  the  law,  inspectors  of 
election  sealed  the  ballots,  delivered  them  to  the  sheriff  or 
his  deputy,  who  conveyed  them  to  the  secretary  of  state.  In 
Otsego  County,  Richard  R.  Smith's  term  as  sheriff  had  ex- 
pired, and  the  new  sheriff  had  not  yet  qualified,  but  Smith 
delivered  the  ballots  to  a  person  specially  deputised  by  him. 

'  Interested  in  this  exciting  campaign  was  yet  a  younger  genera- 
tion, who  soon  contested  their  right-of-way  to  political  leadership. 
Erastus  Eoot  was  a  junior  at  Dartmouth;  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  had 
just  entered  Columbia;  Martin  Van  Buren  was  in  a  country  school 
on  the  farm  at  Kinderhook;  John  Treat  Irving-  was  plajdng  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  to  be  made  famous  by  his  younger  brother;  and 
William  W.  Van  Ness,  the  rarest  genius  of  them  all,  and  his  younger 
cousin,  William  P.  Van  Ness,  were  listening  to  the  voices  that  would 
soon  summon  them,  one  in  support  of  the  brilliant  Federalist  leader, 
the  other  as  a  second  to  Aaron  Burr  in  the  great  tragedy  at  Wee- 
hawken  on  the  11th  of  July,  1804. 


1792]  FIKST   VICIOUS   PRECEDENT  67 

Tioga's  sheriff  turned  the  ballots  over  to  his  deputy,  who, 
being  taken  ill  on  the  journey,  handed  them  to  a  clerk  for 
transmission.  In  Clinton  the  sheriff  gave  the  votes  to  a  man 
without  deputation.  No  ballots  were  missing,  no  seals  were 
broken,  nor  had  their  delivery  been  delayed  for  a  moment. 
But  as  soon  as  it  became  known  that  these  counties  gave 
Jay  a  majority  of  about  four  hundred,  quite  enough  to  elect 
him,  it  was  claimed  that  the  votes  had  not  been  conveyed 
to  the  secretary  of  state  by  persons  authorised  to  do  so 
under  the  law,  and  the  canvassers,  voting  as  their  party 
preferences  dictated,  ruled  out  the  returns  by  a  vote  of  seven 
to  four  in  Clinton's  favour.  The  discussion  preceding  this  ac- 
tion, however,  was  so  acrimonious  and  the  alleged  violation 
of  law  so  technical,  that  the  board  agreed  to  refer  the  con- 
troversy to  Kufus  King  and  Aaron  Burr,  the  United  States 
senators. 

Burr  had  many  an  uneasy  hour.  He  preferred  to  avoid 
the  responsibility,  since  an  opinion  might  jeopardise  his 
political  interests.  If  he  found  for  Clinton,  his  Federalist 
friends  would  take  offence;  if  he  antagonised  Clinton,  the 
anti-Federalists  would  cast  him  out.  Thus  far  it  had  been 
his  policy  to  keep  in  the  biukground,  directing  others  to  act 
for  him;  now  he  must  come  out  into  the  open.  He  tempor- 
ised, delayed,  sought  suggestions  of  friends,  and  endeavoured 
to  induce  his  colleague  to  join  him  in  declining  to  act  as 
a  referee,  but  King  saw  no  reason  for  avoiding  an  opinion, 
and  in  answering  the  question  of  the  canvassers,  he  took  the 
broad  ground  that  an  election  law  should  be  construed  in 
furtherance  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  The  act  was  for  the 
protection  of  voters  whose  rights  could  not  be  jeopardised 
by  the  negligence  or  misconduct  of  an  agent  charged  with 
the  delivery  of  the  ballots,  nor  by  canvassers  charged  with 
their  counting.  It  was  preposterous  to  suppose  that  the 
sudden  illness  of  a  deputy,  or  the  failure  of  an  official  to 
qualify,  could  disfranchise  the  voters  of  a  whole  county.  If 
it  were  otherwise,  then  the  foolish  or  intentional  misconduct 
of  a.  sheriff  might  at  any  time  overturn  the  will  of  a  major- 


58  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap.  vi. 

ity.  There  was  no  pretence  of  wrong-doing.  The  ballots 
had  been  counted,  sealed,  and  delivered  to  the  secretary  of 
state  no  less  faithfully  than  if  there  had  been  a  technical 
adherence  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  He  favoured  can- 
vassing Tioga's  vote,  therefore,  although  it  was  doubtful  if  a 
deputy  sheriff  could  deputise  a  deputy,  while  the  vote  of 
Clinton  should  be  canvassed  because  a  sheriff  may  deputise 
by  parol.  As  to  Otsego,  on  which  the  election  really  turned, 
King  held  that  Smith  was  sheriff  until  a  successor  qualified, 
if  not  in  law,  then  in  fact;  and  though  such  acts  of  a  de 
facto  officer  as  are  voluntarily  and  exclusively  beneficial  to 
himself  are  void,  those  are  valid  that  tend  to  the  public 
utility. 

Burr  was  uninfluenced  by  respect  for  suffrage.  Being 
statutory  law,  it  must  be  construed  literally,  not  in  spirit, 
or  because  of  other  rights  involved.  He  agreed  with  his  col- 
league as  to  the  law  governing  the  Clinton  case;  but  follow- 
ing the  letter  of  the  act,  he  held  that  Tioga's  votes  ought  not 
to  be  counted,  since  a  deputy  could  not  appoint  a  deputy. 
The  Otsego  ballots  were  also  rejected  because  the  right  of  a 
sheriff  to  hold  over  did  not  exist  at  common  law;  and  as 
the  New  York  statute  did  not  authorise  it.  Smith's  duties 
ceased  at  the  end  of  his  term ;  nor  could  he  be  an  officer  de 
facto,  since  he  had  accepted  and  exercised  for  one  day  the 
office  of  supervisor,  which  was  incompatible  with  that  of 
sheriff.  In  other  words.  Burr  reduced  the  question  of  Jay's 
election  to  Smith's  right  to  act,  and  to  avoid  the  de  facto 
right,  so  ably  presented  by  Senator  King,  he  relied  upon 
Smith's  service  of  a  day  as  supervisor  before  receiving  and 
forwarding  the  ballots,  notwithstanding  sheriffs  invariably 
held  over  until  their  successors  qualified.  Seven  of  such 
cases  had  occurred  in  fifteen  years,  and  never  before  had  the 
right  been  seriously  questioned.  In  one  instance  a  hold-over 
sheriff  had  executed  a  criminal.  When  urged  to  appoint  a 
sheriff  for  Otsego  earlier  in  the  year,  Governor  Clinton  ex- 
cused his  delay  because  the  old  one  could  hold  over. 

After  this  decision,  only  Clinton  himself  could  avert  the 


1792]  JAY  COUNTED  OUT.  69 

judgment  certain  to  be  rendered  by  a  partisan  board.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  Governor  remained  silent.  Thus,  by  a  strict 
party  vote  of  seven  to  four,  the  canvassers,  omitting  the  three 
counties  with  four  hundred  majority  in  Jay's  favour,  re- 
turned 8,440  votes  for  Clinton  and  8,332  for  Jay.  Then,  to 
destroy  all  evidence  of  their  shame,  the  ballots  were  burned, 
although  the  custom  obtained  of  preserving  them  in  the  office 
of  the  secretary  of  state.** 

News  travelled  slowly  in  those  days.  There  were  no  tele- 
grams, no  reporters,  no  regular  correspondents,  no  special 
editions  to  tell  the  morning  reader  what  had  happened  the 
day  before;  but  when  it  once  became  known  that  John  Jay 
had  been  counted  out,  the  people  of  the  State  were  aroused 
to  the  wildest  passion  of  rage,  recalling  the  famous  Tilden- 
Hayes  controversy  three-quarters  of  a  century  later.  A  re- 
turning board,  it  was  claimed,  had  overturned  the  will  of 
the  people;  and  to  the  superheated  excitement  of  the  cam- 
paign, was  added  the  fierce  anger  of  an  outraged  party. 
Wild  menaces  were  uttered,  and  the  citizens  of  Otsego  threat- 
ened an  appeal  to  arms.  ''People  are  running  in  continu- 
ally," wrote  Mrs.  Jay  to  her  husband,  "to  vent  their  vexa- 
tion. Senator  King  says  he  thinks  Clinton  as  lawfully  gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  as  of  New  York,  but  he  knows  of  no 
redress."^"  Hamilton  agreed  with  King,  and  counselled 
peaceful  submission. 

°  A  few  days  after  Clinton's  inauguration  Burr  wrote  a  Federalist 
friend:  "I  earnestly  wished  and  sought  to  be  relieved  from  the 
necessity  of  giving  any  opinion,  particularly  as  it  would  be  dis- 
agreeable to  you  and  a  few  others  whom  I  respect  and  wish  al- 
ways to  gratify;  but  the  conduct  of  Mr.  King  left  me  no  alternative. 
I  was  obliged  to  give  an  opinion.  ...  It  Avould,  indeed,  be  the  ex- 
treme of  weakness  in  me  to  expect  friendship  from  Mr.  Clinton.  I 
have  too  many  reasons  to  believe  that  he  regards  me  with  jealousy 
and  malevolence.  .  .  .  Some  pretend,  but  none  can  believe,  that  I 
am  prejudiced  in  his  favour.  I  have  not  even  seen  or  spoken  to  him 
since  January  last."  This  letter  had  scarcely  been  delivered  when 
Clinton  appointed  him  to  the  Supreme  Court,  an  office  which  Burr 
declined,  preferring  to  remain  in  the  Senate. 

">  Jay  MS 8. 


60  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap.  vr. 

Meantime  the  Chief  Justice  was  returning  home  from  Ver- 
mont by  way  of  Albany.  At  Lansingburgh  the  people  met 
him,  and  from  thence  to  New  York  public  addresses  and 
public  dinners  were  followed  with  the  roar  of  artillery  and 
the  shouts  of  the  populace.  ''Though  abuse  of  power  may  for 
a  time  deprive  you  and  the  citizens  of  their  right,"  said  one 
committee,  "we  trust  tJie  sacred  Ilame  of  liberty  is  not  so  far 
extinguished  in  the  bosoms  of  Americans  as  tamely  to  sub- 
mit to  the  shackles  of  slavery,  without  at  least  a  struggle  to 
shake  them  off."^^  Citizens  of  New  York  met  him  eight  miles 
from  the  city,  and  upon  his  arrival,  "the  friends  of  liberty" 
condemned  the  men  who  would  deprive  him  of  the  high  of- 
fice **in  contempt  of  the  sacred  voice  of  the  people,  in  defiance 
of  the  Constitution,  and  in  violation  of  the  uniform  practice 
and  settled  principles  of  law."^- 

During  these  days  of  excitement,  Jay  conducted  himself 
with  remarkable  forbearance  and  dignity.  It  was  the  poise 
of  Washington.  ''The  reflection  that  the  majority  of  electors 
were  for  me  is  a  pleasing  one,"  he  wrote  his  wife;  "that 
injustice  has  taken  place  does  not  surprise  me,  and  I  hope 
will  not  affect  you  very  sensibly.  The  intelligence  found  me 
perfectly  prepared  for  it.  A  few  years  more  will  put  us  all 
in  the  dust,  and  it  will  then  be  of  more  importance  to  me 
to  have  governed  myself  than  to  have  governed  the  State."^' 
This  thought  influenced  his  conduct  throughout.  When 
armed  resistance  seemed  inevitable,  he  raised  his  voice  in 
opposition  to  all  feeling.  "I]very  consideration  of  propriety 
forbids  that  difference  in  opinion  respecting  candidates 
should  suspend  or  interrupt  that  natural  good  humour  which 
harmonises  society,  and  softens  the  asperities  incident  to 
human  life  and  human  afifairs."^*  At  a  large  dinner  on  the 
4th  of  July,  Jay  gave  the  toast:  "May  the  people  always 
respect  themselves,  and  remember  what  they  owe  to  poster- 
ity ;"  but  after  he  had  retired,  the  banqueters  let  loose  their 
tongues,  drinking  to  "John  Jay,  Governor  by  voice  of  the 

"William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  290. 

''Ibid.,  p.  292.  "/6td.,  p.  289.  '*  Ibid.,  p.  293. 


1793]  A    POLITICAL    MACHINE  61 

people,"  and  to  ''the  Governor  (of  right)  of  the  State  of  New 
York." 

Clinton  entered  upon  his  sixth  term  as  governor  amidst 
vituperation  and  obloquy.  He  was  known  as  the  ''Usurper," 
and  in  order  to  reduce  him  to  a  mere  figurehead,  the  Feder- 
alists who  controlled  the  Assembly,  led  by  Josiah  Ogden 
Hoffman,  the  brilliant  New  York  lawyer,  now  proposed  to 
choose  a  new  Council  of  Appointment,  although  the  term  of 
the  old  Council  had  not  jet  expired.  The  Constitution  pro- 
vided that  the  Council  should  hold  office  one  year,  and  that 
the  Governor,  with  the  advice  of  the  Council,  should  appoint 
to  office.  Up  to  this  time  such  had  been  the  accepted 
practice.  Nevertheless,  the  Federalists,  having  a  majority 
of  the  Assembly,  forced  the  election  of  a  Council  made  up 
entirely  of  members  of  their  own  party,  headed  by  Philip 
Schuyler,  the  veteran  legislator  and  soldier,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  nominate  and  confirm  Egbert  Benson  as  a  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  Clinton,  as  governor  and  a  member 
of  the  Council,  refused  to  nominate  Benson,  insisting  that 
the  exclusive  right  of  nomination  was  vested  in  him.  Here 
the  matter  should  have  ended  under  the  Constitution  as  Jay 
interpreted  it;  but  Schuyler  held  otherwise,  claiming  that 
the  Council  had  a  concurrent  right  to  nominate.  He  went 
further,  and  decided  that  whenever  the  law  omitted  to  limit 
the  number  of  officers,  the  Council  might  do  it,  and  whenever 
an  officer  must  be  commissioned  annually,  another  might  be 
put  in  his  place  at  the  expiration  of  his  commission.  This 
would  give  the  Council  power  to  increase  at  will  the  number 
of  officials  not  otherwise  limited  by  law,  and  to  displace 
every  anti-Federalist  at  the  expiration  of  his  commission. 

Clinton  argued  that  the  governor,  being  charged  under 
the  Constitution  with  the  execution  of  the  laws,  was  vested 
with  exclusive  discretion  as  to  the  number  of  officers  neces- 
sary to  their  execution,  whereas,  if  left  to  one  not  respon- 
sible for  such  execution,  too  many  or  too  few  officials  might 
be  created.  With  respect  to  the  continuation  of  an  incum- 
bent in  office  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Council,  ''the  Constitution 


62  CLINTON   DEFEATS    JAY  [Chap.  vi. 

did  not  intend,"  he  said,  ''a  capricious,  arbitrary  pleasure, 
but  a  sound  discretion  to  be  exercised  for  the  promotion  of 
the  public  good;  that  a  contrary  practice  would  deprive  men 
of  their  offices  because  they  have  too  much  independence  of 
spirit  to  support  measures  they  suppose  injurious  to  the 
community,  and  might  induce  others  from  undue  attachment 
to  office  to  sacrifice  their  integrity  to  improper  considera- 
tions."^^ This  was  good  reasoning  and  good  prophecy;  but 
his  protests  fell  upon  ears  as  deaf  to  a  wise  policy  as  did 
the  protests  of  Jay's  friends  when  the  board  of  canvassers 
counted  Jay  out  and  Clinton  in. 

The  action  of  the  Council  of  Appointment  was  a  stunning 
blow  to  Clinton.  Under  Jay's  constitution,  every  officer  in 
city,  county,  and  State,  civil  and  military,  save  governor, 
lieutenant-governor,  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  alder- 
men, could  now  be  appointed  by  the  Council  regardless  of 
the  Governor;  and  already  these  appointments  mounted  up 
into  hundreds.  In  1821  they  numbered  over  fifteen  thousand. 
Thus,  as  if  by  magic,  the  Council  was  turned  into  a  political 
machine.  Under  this  arrangement,  a  party  only  needed  a 
majority  of  the  Assembly  to  elect  a  Council  which  made  all 
appointments,  and  the  control  of  appointments  was  sufficient 
to  elect  a  majority  of  the  Assembly.  Thus  it  was  an  endless 
chain  the  moment  the  Council  became  a  political  machine, 
and  it  became  a  political  machine  the  moment  Philip  Schuy- 
ler headed  the  Council  of  1793. 

This  arbitrary  proceeding  led  to  twenty  years  of  corrupt 
methods  and  political  scandals.  Schuyler's  justification  was 
probably  the  conviction  that  poetic  justice  required  that 
Clinton,  having  become  governor  without  right,  should  have 
his  powers  reduced  to  their  lowest  terms;  but  whatever 
the  motive,  his  action  was  indefensible,  and  his  reply  that 
the  Governor's  practices  did  not  correspond  to  his  precepts 
fell  for  want  of  proof.  Clinton  had  then  been  in  office  seven- 
teen years,  and,  although  he  took  good  care  to  select  mem- 
bers of  his  own  party,  only  one  case,  and  that  a  doubtful  one, 

"  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1,  p.  84. 


1795]  AN  APOCRYPHAL  STATEMENT  63 

could  be  cited  in  support  of  the  charge  that  appointments 
had  been  made  solely  for  political  purposes. 

In  a  published  address,  on  January  22,  1795,  Governor 
Clinton  declined  to  stand  for  re-election  in  the  following 
April  because  of  ill  health  and  neglected  private  affairs.  In- 
cluded in  this  letter  was  the  somewhat  apocryphal  statement 
that  he  withdrew  from  an  office  never  solicited,  which  he 
had  accepted  with  diffidence,  and  from  which  he  should  re- 
tire with  pleasure.  The  reader  who  has  followed  the  story 
of  his  career  through  the  campaigns  of  1789  and  1792  will 
scarcely  believe  him  serious  in  this  declaration,  although  he 
undoubtedly  retired  with  pleasure.  At  the  time  of  his  with- 
drawal, he  had  an  attack  of  inflammatory  rheumatism,  but 
he  was  neither  a  sick  man  nor  an  old  one,  being  then  in  his 
fifty-fifth  year,  with  twelve  years  of  honourable  public  life 
still  before  him.  It  is  likely  the  reason  in  the  old  rhyme,  ''He 
who  fights  and  runs  away,  lives  to  fight  another  day,"  had 
more  to  do  with  his  retirement  than  shattered  health  and 
crippled  fortune.  Defeat  has  never  been  regarded  helpful  to 
future  political  preferment,  and  this  shrewd  reader  of  the 
signs  of  the  times,  his  ambition  already  fixed  on  higher  hon- 
ours and  more  exalted  place,  saw  the  coming  political  change 
in  New  York  as  clearly  and  unmistakably  as  an  approaching 
storm  announced  itself  in  an  increase  of  his  rheumatic 
aches. 


CHAPTER    VII 
RECOGNITION  OF  EARNEST  MEN 

1795-1800 

With  Clinton  out  of  the  race  for  governor  in  1795,  his 
party's  weakness  discovered  itself  in  the  selection  of  Chief 
Justice  Robert  Yates,  Hamilton's  coalition  candidate  in 
1789.  It  was  a  makeshift  nomination,  since  none  cared  to 
run  after  Clinton's  declination  sounded  a  note  of  defeat. 
Yates'  passion  for  office  led  him  into  strange  blunders.  He 
seemed  willing  to  become  the  candidate  of  any  party,  under 
any  conditions,  at  any  time,  if  only  he  could  step  into  the 
official  shoes  of  George  Clinton.  He  was  excusable  in  1789, 
perhaps,  when  the  way  opened  up  a  fair  chance  of  success, 
but  in  1795  his  ambition  subjected  him  to  ridicule  as  well 
as  to  humiliation.  It  was  said  derisively  that  he  was  de- 
feated, although  every  freeholder  in  the  State  had  voted  for 
him. 

The  Federalists  were  far  from  unanimous  in  their  choice 
of  John  Jay.  He  had  not  yet  returned  from  England, 
whither  Washington  had  sent  him  in  the  preceding  year  to 
negotiate  a  treaty  to  recover,  among  other  things,  compensa- 
tion for  negroes  who  followed  English  troops  across  the  At- 
lantic at  the  close  of  the  war ;  to  obtain  a  surrender  of  the 
Western  military  posts  not  yet  evacuated ;  and  to  secure  an 
article  against  impressments.  It  was  believed  that  a  storm 
of  disapproval  would  greet  his  work,  and  the  timid  ones 
seriously  questioned  the  expediency  of  his  nomination.  The 
submission  of  the  treaty  had  already  precipitated  a  crisis  in 
the  United  States  Senate,  and  while  it  might  not  be  ratified 
and  officially  promulgated  before  election,  grave  danger  ex- 

64 


1795]  A  TEMPEST  IN  A  TEAPOT  65 

isted  of  its  clandestine  publication  by  the  press.  Hamil- 
ton, however,  insisted,  and  Jay  became  the  nominee.  "It 
had  been  so  decreed  from  the  beginning,"  wrote  Egbert 
Benson. 

The  campaign  that  followed  was  featureless.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Yates  aroused  no  interest,  and  Chief  Justice  Jay  was 
in  England.  From  the  outset,  Jay's  election  was  conceded ; 
and  a  canvass  of  the  votes  showed  that  he  had  swept  the 
State  by  a  large  majority.  In  1789  Clinton  received  a  ma- 
jority of  489;  in  1792  the  canvassers  gave  him  108;  but  in 
1795  Jay  had  1589.^ 

What  would  have  happened  had  the  treaty  been  published 
before  election,  fills  one  with  interested  conjecture.  Its  dis- 
closure on  July  2,  the  day  after  Jay's  inauguration,  turned 
the  applause  of  that  joyous  occasion  into  the  most  exasper- 
ating abuse.  Such  a  sudden  and  tempestuous  change  in  the 
popularity  of  a  public  official  is  unprecedented  in  the  history 
of  American  politics.  In  a  night  the  whole  State  was  thrown 
into  a  ferment  of  intense  excitement,  the  storm  of  vitupera- 
tion seeming  to  centre  in  New  York  city.  Jay  was  burned  in 
effigy;  Hamilton  was  struck  in  the  face  with  a  stone  while 
defending  Jay's  work;  a  copy  of  the  treaty  was  burned  be- 
fore the  house  of  the  British  Minister ;  riot  and  mob  violence 
held  carnival  everywhere.  Party  spirit  never  before,  and 
never  since,  perhaps,  ran  so  high.  One  effigy  represented 
Jay  as  saying,  while  supporting  a  pair  of  scales,  with  the 
treaty  on  one  side  and  a  bag  of  gold  on  the  other,  "Come  up 
to  my  price,  and  I  will  sell  you  my  country."  Chalked  in 
large  white  letters  on  one  of  the  principal  streets  in  New 
York,  appeared  these  words:  ''Damn  John  Jay!  Damn 
every  one  that  won't  damn  John  Jay!  !  Damn  every  one 
that  won't  put  lights  in  his  windows  and  sit  up  all 
night  damning  John  Jay !  !  !"^  This  revulsion  of  public  sen- 
timent was  not  exactly  a  tempest  in  a  teapot,  but  it  proved 

*.Tohn  Jay,  13,481;  Eobert  Yates,  11,892.  Civil  List,  State  of  New 
York  (1887),  p.  166. 

"  John  Jay,  Second  Letter  on  Dawson's  Federalist,  N.  Y.,  1864,  p.  19 


66  KECOGNITION  OF  EARNEST  MEN    [Chap.  vn. 

a  storm  of  limited  duration,  the  elections  in  the  spring  of 
1790  showing  decided  legislative  gains  for  the  Federalists. 

Hamilton  divined  the  cause  of  the  trouble.     ''There  are 
three  persons,"  he  wrote,^  "prominent  in  the  public  eye  as. 
the  successor  of  the  President — Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Jay,  and 
Mr.  Jefferson.     .     .     .     Mr.  Jay  has  been  repeatedly  the  ob- 
ject of  attacks  with  the  same  view.    His  friends,  as  well  as 
his  enemies,  anticipated  that  he  could  make  no  treaty  which 
would  not  furnish  weapons  against  him ;  and  it  were  to  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  indefatigable  malice  of  his  adversaries 
to  have  doubted  that  they  would  be  seized  with  eagerness 
and  wielded  with  dexterity.       The  peculiar  circumstances 
which  have  attended  the  two  last  elections  for  governor  of 
this  State  have  been  of  a  nature  to  give  the  utmost  keenness, 
to  party  animosity.    It  was  impossible  that  Mr.  Jay  should 
be  forgiven  for  his  double,  and,  in  the  last  instance,  trium- 
phant success ;  or  that  any  promising  opportunity  of  detach- 
ing from  him  the  public  confidence,  should  pass  unimproved. 
.     .     .     .     Trivial  facts  frequently  throw  light  upon  impor- 
tant designs.    It   is  remarkable   that   in   the   toasts   given 
on  July  4,  1795,  whenever  there  appears  a  direct  or  indirect 
censure  of  the  treaty,  it  is  pretty  uniformly  coupled  with 
compliments  to  Mr.  Jefiferson,  and  to  our  late  governor,  Mr. 
Clinton,  with  an  evident  design  to  place  those  gentlemen  in 
contrast  to  Mr.  Jay,  and,  decrying  him,  to  elevate  them.    Na 
one  can  be  blind  to  the  finger  of  party  spirit,  visible  iu 
these  and  similar  transactions.      It  indicates  to  us  clearly 
one  powerful  source  of  opposition  to  the  treaty." 

The  treaty  was  undoubtedly  a  disappointment  to  the  coun- 
try, and  not  greatly  pleasing  to  Washington.  Perhaps  Jay 
said  the  best  thing  that  could  be  said  in  its  favour:  "One 
more  favourable  was  not  attainable."  The  thing  he  was  sent 
especially  to  do,  he  failed  to  accomplish,  except  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  posts,  and  a  concession  as  to  the  West  Indian 
trade,  which  the  Senate  rejected.  Nevertheless  the  country 
was  greatly  and  permanently  benefited.    The  treaty  acquired 

"Hamilton's  Camillus,  July  22,  1795,  Works,  Vol.  4,  p.  371. 


1795]  JAY'S   TREATY   COHl^IENDED  67 

extradition  for  criminals;  it  secured  the  collection  of  debts 
barred  by  the  Revolution,  amounting  to  ten  million  dollars ; 
it  established  the  princijjle  that  war  should  not  again  be  a 
pretext  for  the  confiscation  of  debts  or  for  the  annulment  of 
contracts  between  individuals;  and  it  avoided  a  war  with 
England,  for  which  the  United  States  was  never  more  unpre- 
pared. "As  the  first  treaty  negotiated  under  the  new  gov- 
ernment," says  John  W.  Foster,  "it  marked  a  distinct  ad- 
vance in  international  practice."*  In  a  recent  biography  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  Professor  Sumner  says:  "Jay's  treaty 
was  a  masterpiece  of  diplomacy,  considering  the  times  and 
the  circumstances  of  this  country."  Even  the  much-criticised 
commercial  clause,  "the  entering  wedge,"  as  Jay  called  it, 
proved  such  a  gain  to  America,  that  upon  the  breaking  out 
of  war  in  1812,  Lord  Sheffield  declared  that  England  had 
"now  a  complete  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  that  most  im- 
politic treaty  of  1794,  when  Lord  Grenville  was  so  perfectly 
duped  by  Jay."^ 

John  Jay's  first  term  as  governor  was  characteristically 
cautious  and  conservative.  He  began  with  observing  the  pro- 
prieties, gracefully  declining  the  French  Consul's  invitation 
to  a  republican  entertainment,  and  courageously  remaining 
at  his  post  during  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  of  1795.  With 
equal  ease  he  settled  the  growing  conflict  between  the  sever- 
ity of  the  x^ast  and  the  sympathy  of  the  present,  by  changing 
the  punishment  in  cases  of  ordinary  felony,  from  death  to 
imprisonment.  Up  to  that  time  men  might  have  been  exe- 
cuted for  stealing  a  few  loaves  of  high-priced  bread  to  re- 
lieve the  sufferings  of  a  hungry  family.  Under  Jay's  humane 
plea  for  mercy  the  death  penalty  was  limited  to  treason, 
murder,  and  stealing  from  a  church.  A  quarter  of  a  century 
passed  before  Sir  James  Mackintosh  succeeded  in  carrying  a 
similar  measure  through  the  British  Parliament. 

In  his  first  message  Jay  recommended  neither  the  abolition 
*A  Cenfunj  of  American  Diplo7n-aci/,  p.  165. 

"  To  Mr.  Abbott,  November  6,  1812,  Correspondence  of  Lord  Col' 
Chester,  Vol.  2,  p.  409. 


68  RECOGNITION  OF  EAENEST  MEN    [Chap.  vu. 

of  sjavery,  nor  the  discontinuance  of  official  changes  for  po- 
litical reasons,  ''since  the  best  and  most  virtuous  men,"  he 
said,  "must,  in  the  distribution  of  patronage,  yield  to  the  in- 
fluence of  party  considerations."  As  the  only  important 
questions  before  him  just  then  involved  the  freedom  of  slaves 
and  reform  in  the  civil  service,  his  silence  as  to  the  one  and 
his  declaration  as  to  the  other  were  certainly  suflaclent  to 
allay  any  suspicion  that  he  was  to  become  a  radical  re- 
former. He  did  recommend  a  legislative  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution  relating  to  the  governor's  exclusive  right  to 
nominate  to  office;  but  in  the  blandest  and  most  complimen- 
tary words,  the  Legislature  invited  the  Governor  to  let  well 
enough  alone.  ''The  evidence  of  ability,  integrity  and  patriot- 
ism," so  the  answer  ran,  "which  has  been  invariably  afforded 
by  your  conduct  in  the  discharge  of  the  variety  of  arduous 
and  important  trusts,  authorise  us  to  anticipate  an  adminis- 
tration conducive  to  the  welfare  of  your  constituents."  This 
amiable  answer  betrayed  the  deft  hand  of  Ambrose  Spencer, 
who,  to  make  it  sweeter  and  more  acceptable,  moved  the  in- 
sertion of  the  word  "invariably."*'  Thus  ended  the  sugges- 
tion of  a  law  that  might  have  undone  the  mischief  of  Schuy- 
ler, and  prevented  the  scandal  and  corrupt  methods  that  ob- 
tained during  the  next  two  decades.  At  least,  this  is  the 
thought  of  a  later  century,  when  civil  service  reform  has 
sunk  a  tap-root  into  American  soil,  still  frosty,  perhaps,  yet 
not  wliolly  congealed  as  it  seems  to  have  been  one  hundred 
years  ago. 

Jay's  administration  might  be  called  the  reward  days  of 
earnest,  able  men,  whose  meritorious  service  became  their 
passport  to  office.  Upon  the  retirement  in  1798  of  Robert 
Yates  and  John  Sloss  Hobart  from  the  Supreme  bench,  he 
appointed  James  Kent  and  Jacob  Radcliff.  If  Jay  had  never 
done  anything  else,  the  appointment  of  Kent  would  immor- 
talise him,  just  as  the  selection  of  John  Marshall  placed  a 
halo  about  the  head  of  President  Adams.  Kent,  now  thirty- 
five  years  old,  a  great  lawyer  and  a  strong  partisan,  had  the 

*  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1,  p.  97. 


1798]  JAMES   KENT  69 

conservatism  of  Jay,  and  held  to  the  principles  of  Hamilton. 
He  was  making  brilliant  way  in  politics,  showing  himself  an 
administrator,  a  debater,  and  a  leader  of  consummate  abil- 
ity; but  he  steadily  refused  to  withdraw  from  the  profes- 
sional path  along  which  he  was  to  move  with  such  distinc- 
tion. Until  Kent's  appearance,  the  administration  of  the 
law  had  been  inefficient  and  unsatisfactory.  Men  of  ability 
had  occupied  the  bench ;  but  the  laborious  and  business  meth- 
ods which  subsequently  gave  strength  and  character  to  the 
court,  had  not  been  applied.  The  custom  of  writing  opinions 
in  the  most  important  cases  did  not  then  obtain,  while  the 
principles  and  foundation  of  the  law  were  seldom  explored. 
But  Kent  began  at  once,  after  a  most  laborious  examination 
of  the  cases  and  the  law,  to  bring  the  written  opinions  which 
enrich  the  reports  of  Caines  and  Johnson,  to  the  consulta- 
tions of  the  judges,  thus  setting  an  example  to  his  associates, 
and  opening  the  way  for  that  admirable  and  orderly  system 
of  jurisprudence  that  has  adorned  the  judiciary  of  New 
York  for  more  than  a  century.  The  men  of  the  older  school 
had  had  their  day.  The  court  of  Hobart  was  closed;  the 
age  of  Kent  had  opened. 

Eadcliff,  the  other  judicial  appointee,  was  not  a  new  name 
in  1798;  but  it  was  destined  to  become  dearer  to  every 
lover  of  a  chancery  lawyer.  He  had  a  natural  gift 
for  chancery,  and  no  natural  inclination  whatever 
for  politics  or  the  bench.  So,  after  serving  a  single  term 
in  the  Assembly,  two  years  as  an  assistant  attorney-general, 
and  six  years  on  the  Supreme  Court,  he  returned  to  the  prac- 
tice, to  which  he  devoted  the  remaining  forty  years  of  his 
life,  save  when  holding  the  office  of  mayor  of  New  York  in 
1810,  and  again  in  1815  during  the  brief  retirement  of  De- 
Witt  Clinton.  Wherever  he  appeared,  Radcliff's  erect,  dig- 
nified bearing  and  remarkably  handsome  face,  illuminated 
with  large  eyes  and  a  highly  intellectual  expression,  marked 
him  as  a  man  of  distinction.  He  set  the  custom  of  dictating 
bills  in  chancery  to  an  amanuensis,  doing  it  with  such  ac- 
curacy that  a  word  had  seldom  to  be  changed.    Of  the  same 


•70  RECOGNITION  OF  EARNEST  MEN    [Chap.  vii. 

age  as  Kent,  he  must  have  been  of  great  help  to  that  distin- 
guished jurist,  had  he  continued  with  the  court.  While  hov- 
ering somewhat  uncertain  between  the  bench  and  the  bar, 
he  removed  to  New  York  City,  where  the  opportunities  for 
one  of  his  gifts  soon  settled  the  question. 

Other  appointments  of  Jay  were  equally  satisfactory.  The 
comptrollership  of  state,  recently  created,  went  to  Samuel 
Jones  in  return  for  having  patiently  worked  out  this  more 
perfect  method  of  controlling  and  disbursing  state  funds. 
Ambrose  Spencer  became  an  assistant  attorney-general,  and 
the  appointment  of  Rufus  King  as  minister  to  England  made 
room  for  the  election  of  John  Lawrence  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  Lawrence  had  little  claim,  perhaps,  to  be  entered 
in  the  class  with  Rufus  King,  since  he  was  neither  leader  nor 
statesman ;  but  he  had  been  the  faithful  adjutant-general  of 
Washington,  and  a  steady,  fearless  supporter  of  Hamilton. 
Xiawrence,  an  Englishman  by  birth,  had  settled  in  New 
York  at  an  early  period  in  life,  and  by  his  marriage  to  the 
daughter  of  Alexander  McDougall,  quickly  came  into  con- 
spicuous sympathy  with  the  radical  wing  of  the  patriotic 
party.  He  will  always  be  remembered  in  history  as  judge- 
advocate  of  the  court  that  tried  Major  Andre.  He  held  of- 
fice almost  continuously  from  1775  until  his  death  in  1810, 
serving  eight  years  in  the  army,  one  in  the  State  Senate,  six 
in  Congress,  four  as  judge  of  the  United  States  District 
Court,  and  four  as  a  United  States  senator,  closing  his  hon- 
ourable career  as  president  pro  tem.  of  that  body. 

As  a  rebuke  to  Aaron  Burr's  snap  game  so  successfully 
played  in  1791,  Philip  Schuyler  succeeded  him  in  the  United 
States  Senate  in  1797,  an  event  that  must  have  sweetened 
the  closing  years  of  the  Revolutionary  veteran.  But  Schuy- 
ler was  now  a  sick  man,  and  in  January,  1798,  he  resigned 
the  senatorial  toga  to  others,  upon  whose  shoulders  it  rested 
briefly,  and  possibly  with  less  ease  and  grace.  John  Sloss 
Hobart  wore  it  for  three  months.  After  him,  for  ten  months, 
came  William  North,  followed  by  James  Watson,  who,  in 
turn,  resigned  in  March,  1800.     Thus,  in  the  short  period 


1800]  GOUVEENEUE  MOEEIS  VI 

of  thirty-six  months,  four  men  tasted  the  sweets  of  the  ex- 
alted position  so  brilliantly  filled  by  the  erratic  grandson  of 
Jonathan  Edwards.  North  and  Watson  were  men  of  cer- 
tain ability  and  certain  gifts.  Both  had  been  soldiers. 
North  had  followed  Arnold  to  Quebec,  had  charged  with  his 
regiment  at  Monmouth,  had  served  with  credit  upon  Baron 
Steuben's  staff,^  and  had  acquitted  himself  with  honour  at 
Yorktown.  He  belonged  to  that  coterie  of  brilliant  young 
men,  noted  for  bravery  and  endurance,  who  quickly  found 
favour  with  the  fighting  generals  of  the  Eevolution.  Watson 
resigned  his  captaincy  in  1777,  and  engaged  successfully  in 
mercantile  pursuits,  subsequently  entering  the  Assembly 
with  North,  the  former  becoming  speaker  in  1794  and  the 
latter  in  1795  and  1790.  At  the  time  of  North's  election  to 
the  United  States  Senate,  Watson  was  a  member  of  the 
State  Senate.  Like  Lawrence,  both  were  perfervid  Feder- 
alists, zealous  champions  of  Hamilton,  and  profound  be- 
lievers in  the  wisdom  of  minimising,  if  not  abrogating,  the 
rights  of  States. 

Watson's  resignation  from  the  United  States  Senate  en- 
abled the  Federalists  to  elect  Gouverneur  Morris  just  be- 
fore the  political  change  in  1800  swept  them  from  power. 
Morris  was  a  fit  successor  to  Schuyler.  His  family  had  be- 
longed to  the  State  for  a  century  and  a  half.     The  name 

^  At  twenty-two  years  of  age,  while  witnessing*  the  disgraceful 
rout  of  General  Lee  at  Monmouth,  North  attracted  the  attention 
of  Steuben,  whose  tactics  and  discipline  the  young-  officer  sub- 
sequently Introduced  throughout  the  Continental  army.  The 
cordiality  existing*  between  the  earnest  aide  and  the  brave  Prussian, 
so  dear  to  his  friends,  so  formidable  to  his  enemies,  ripened  into 
an  affectionate  regard  that  recalls  the  relation  between  Washing- 
ton and  Hamilton.  After  the  war,  with  an  annuity  of  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  and  sixteen  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Oneida 
County,  the  gift  of  New  York,  Steuben  built  a  log-  house,  with- 
drew from  society,  and  played  at  farming,  until  in  1794  his  remains 
were  borne  to  the  spot,  not  far  from  Trenton  Falls,  where  stands 
the  monument  that  bears  his  name.  The  faithful  North  visited  and 
cared  for  him  to  the  end,  and  under  the  terms  of  the  will  parcelled 
out  the  great  estate  among  his  tenants  and  old  staff  officers. 


12  RECOGNITION  OF  EAENEST  MEN    [Chap.  vii. 

stood  for  tradition  and  conservatism — an  embodiment  of  the 
past  amid  the  changes  of  revolution.  His  home  near  Har- 
laem,  an  estate  of  three  thousand  acres,  with  a  prospect  of 
intermingled  islands  and  water,  stretching  to  the  Sound, 
which  had  been  purchased  by  a  great-grandfather  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  preceding  centurj-,  reflected  the  substantial  char- 
acter of  its  founder,  a  distinguished  officer  in  Cromwell's 
army. 

Gouverneur  was  the  child  of  his  father's  second  marriage. 
The  family,*  especially  the  older  children,  of  whom  Richard, 
chief  justice  of  the  State,  was  the  third  and  youngest  boy, 
resented  the  union,  making  Gouverneur's  position  resemble 
that  of  Joseph  among  his  brethren.  Twenty-two  years  in- 
tervened between  him  and  Richard.  Before  the  former  left 
the  schoolroom,  the  latter  had  succeeded  his  father  as  judge 
of  the  vice-admiralty;  but  as  for  being  of  any  assistance  to 
the  fatherless  lad  Richard  might  as  well  have  been  vice-ad- 
miral of  the  blue,  sailing  the  seas.  There  would  be  some- 
thing pathetic  in  this  estrangement,  if  independence  and  self- 
reliance  had  not  dominated  the  youngest  son  as  well  as  the 
older  heirs  of  this  noble  family.     Lewis,  the  eldest,  served  in 

*  There  was  a  slight  vein  of  eccentricity  running  through  the 
Morris  family,  with  its  occasional  oiitcroppings  accentuated  in  the 
presence  of  death.  The  grandfather,  distinguished  as  chief  justice 
of  New  York  and  governor  of  New  Jersey,  forbade  in  his  will  the 
payment  of  any  one  for  preaching  his  funeral  sermon,  but  if  a  per- 
son volunteered,  he  said,  commending  or  blaming  his  conduct  in 
life,  his  words  would  be  acceptable.  Goiiverneur's  father  desired 
no  notice  of  his  dissolution  in  the  newspapers,  not  even  a  simple 
announcement  of  his  death.  "My  actions,"  he  wrote,  "have  been 
so  inconsiderable  in  the  world,  that  the  most  durable  monument 
will  not  perpetuate  my  folly  while  it  lasts."  It  Is  evident  that 
Gouverneur  did  not  inherit  from  him  the  almost  bumptious  self- 
confi'dence  which  was  to  mar  more  than  help  him.  That  inherent 
defect  came  from  his  mother,  who  gave  him,  also,  a  brilliancy  and 
versatility  that  other  members  of  the  family  did  not  share,  making 
him  more  conspicuously  active  in  high  places  during  the  exciting" 
days  of  the  Eevolution.  Gouverneur  Morris  was  a  national  char- 
acter; Richard  and  Lewis  belonged  exclusively  to  New  York. 


1775-isoo]  A    REMARKABLE    TRIO  73 

the  Continental  Congress  and  became  a  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  while  Staats  Long,  the  second  son, 
wandered  to  England,  married  the  Countess  of  Gordon,  be- 
came a  general  in  the  British  arnij',  and  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment in  the  days  of  Lord  North  and  Charles  James  Fox. 
It  was  a  strange  coincidence,  one  brother  resisting 
Parliament  in  Congress,  the  other  resisting  Congress  in 
Parliament, 

The  influences  surrounding  Gouverneur's  youth  were  de- 
cidedly Tory.  His  mother  warmly  adhered  to  George  the 
Third ;  his  professors  at  King's  taught  loyalty  to  the  Crown ; 
his  distinguished  tutor  in  the  law,  William  Smith,  New 
York's  Tory  historian,  magnified  the  work  and  the  strength 
of  Parliament;  while  his  associates,  always  his  mother's  wel- 
comed guests  at  Morrisania,  were  British  officers,  who  talked 
of  Wolfe  and  his  glorious  struggles  for  England  But  there 
never  was  a  moment  from  the  time  Gouverneur  Morris  en- 
tered the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  York  on  May  22,  1775, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  that  he  was  not  conspicuously 
and  brilliantly  active  in  the  cause  of  America.  Whenever  or 
wherever  a  Revolutionary  body  was  organised,  or  for  what- 
ever purpose.  Congress,  Convention,  or  Committee  of 
Safety,  he  became  a  member  of  it.  Six  years  younger  than 
Jay,  and  six  years  older  than  Hamilton,  he  seemed  to  com- 
plete that  remarkable  New  l^'ork  trio,  so  fertile  in  mental 
resources  and  so  successful  in  achievement.  He  did  not,  like 
Jay,  outline  a  constitution,  but  he  believed,  with  Jay,  in 
balancing  wealth  against  numbers,  and  in  contending  for 
the  protection  of  the  rights  of  property  against  the  spirit 
of  democracy.  It  is  interesting  to  study  these  young  men, 
so  different  in  temperament,  yet  thinking  alike  and  acting 
together  for  a  quarter  of  a  century — Jay,  gentle  and  mod- 
est; Hamilton,  impetuous  and  imperious;  Morris,  self-con- 
fident and  conceited;  but  on  all  essential  matters  of  state, 
standing  together  like  a  tripod,  firm  and  invincible.  In  his 
distrust  of  western  influences,  however,  Morris  was  more 
conservative  than  Jav  or  Hamilton.    He  was  broad  and  lib- 


14:  KECOGNITION  OF  EARNEST  MEN    [Chap.  vu. 

eral  toward  the  original  thirteen  States,  but  he  wanted  to 
subordinate  the  balance  of  the  country  to  their  control.  He 
regarded  the  people  who  might  seek  homes  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  with  something  of  the  suspicion  Jay  entertained  for 
the  propertyless  citizens  of  New  York.  The  day  would  come, 
he  believed,  when  those  untutored,  backwoods  settlers  would 
outnumber  their  brethren  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  he  de- 
sired some  provision  in  the  Constitution  which  would  permit 
the  minority  to  rule  such  a  majority.  If  these  views  shriv- 
elled his  statesmanship,  it  may  be  said  to  his  credit  that  they 
discovered  a  prophetic  gift  most  uncommon  in  those  days, 
giving  him  the  power  to  see  a  great  empire  of  people  in  the 
fertile  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries.^  Fifteen 
years  later  ICobert  K.  Livingston  expressed  the  belief  that 
not  in  a  century  would  a  white  man  cross  the  Father  of 
Waters. 

Into  the  life  of  Jay's  peaceful  administration  came  an- 
other interesting  character,  the  champion  of  every  project 
known  to  the  inventive  genius  of  his  day.  We  shall  hear 
much  of  Samuel  Latham  Mitchill  during  the  next  three  dec- 
ades. He  was  now  thirty-five  years  old,  a  sort  of  universal 
eccentric  genius,  already  known  as  philosopher,  scientist, 
teacher,  and  critic,  a  professor  in  Columbia,  the  friend  of 
Joseph  Priestley,  the  author  of  scientific  essays,  and  the  first 

*  Gouvemeur  Morris  seemed  to  find  history-making'  places.  With 
Washington  and  Greene  he  opposed  the  Conway  cabal;  with  Jay 
«nd  Living-ston  he  drafted  the  Constitution  of  the  State;  with 
Hamilton  and  Madison  he  stood  for  the  Federal  Constitution,  the 
revision  of  its  style  being-  committed  to  his  pen.  Then  Washington 
needed  him,  first  in  England,  afterward  as  minister  to  France; 
and  when  Monroe  relieved  him  in  1794  he  travelled  leisurely  through 
Europe  for  four  years,  meeting  its  distinguished  writers  and  states- 
men, forming  friendships  with  Madame  De  Stael  and  the  Neckers, 
aiding  and  witnessing  the  release  of  Lafayette  from  Olmutz  prison, 
and  finally  assisting  the  young  and  melancholy,  but  gentle  and 
unassuming  Duke  of  Orleans,  afterward  King  of  France,  to  find  a 
temporary  asylum  in  the  United  States.  He  returned  to  America 
ten  years  after  he  had  sailed  from  the  Delaware  capes,  just  in  time 
to  be  called  to  the  United  States  Senate. 


1787-1800]      STEAMBOATS   ON    THE   HUDSON  15 

in  America  to  make  mineralogical  explorations.  Perhaps  if 
he  had  worked  in  fewer  fields  he  might  have  won  greater 
renown,  making  his  name  familiar  to  the  general  student  of 
our  own  time;  but  he  belonged  to  an  order  of  intellect  far 
higher  than  most  of  his  associates,  filling  the  books  with  his 
doings  and  sayings.  Although  his  influence,  even  among 
specialists,  has  probably  faded  now,  he  inspired  the  scientific 
thought  of  his  time, and  established  societies  which  still  exist, 
and  whose  history,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1831,  was 
largely  his  own.  Mitchill  belonged  to  the  Republican  party 
because  it  was  the  party  of  Jeff'erson,  and  he  followed  Jefifer- 
son  because  Jefferson  was  a  philosopher.  For  the  same  rea- 
son he  became  the  personal  friend  of  Chancellor  Livingston, 
with  whom,  among  other  things,  he  founded  the  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Agriculture,  Manufactures,  and  the  Useful 
Arts,  It  was  said  of  Mitchill  that  ''he  was  equally  at  home 
in  studying  the  geology  of  Niagara,  or  the  anatomy  of  an 
egg;  in  offering  suggestions  as  to  the  angle  of  a  windmill,  or 
the  shape  of  a  gridiron ;  in  deciphering  a  Babylonian  brick, 
or  in  advising  how  to  apply  steam  to  navigation." 

Mitchill  became  a  member  of  the  Assembly  in  1798,  and 
it  was  his  interest  in  the  experiments  then  being  made  of 
applying  steam  to  navigation,  that  led  him  to  introduce  a 
bill  repealing  the  act  of  1787,  giving  John  Fitch  the  sole 
right  to  use  steamboats  on  the  Hudson,  and  granting  the 
privilege  to  Chancellor  Livingston  for  a  term  of  twenty 
years,  provided  that  within  a  year  he  should  build  a  boat 
of  twenty  tons  capacity  and  propel  it  by  steam  at  a  speed  of 
four  miles  an  hour.  John  Fitch  had  disappeared,  and  with 
him  his  idea  of  applying  steam  to  paddles.  He  had  fitted  a 
steam  engine  of  his  own  invention  into  a  ferry-boat  of  his 
own  construction,  and  for  a  whole  summer  this  creation  of 
an  uneducated  genius  had  been  seen  by  the  people  of  Phila- 
delphia moving  steadily  against  wind  and  tide;  but  money 
gave  out,  the  experiment  was  unsatisfactory,  and  Fitch  wan- 
dered to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  where  opium  helped  him 
end  his  life  in  an  obscure  Kentucky  inn,  while  his  steamboat 


76  KECOGNITION  OF  EARNEST  MEN    [Chap.  vii. 

rotted  on  the  shores  of  the  Delaware.  Then  John  Stevens 
of  Hoboken  began  a  series  of  experiments  in  1791,  trying 
elliptical  paddles,  smoke-jack  wheels,  and  other  ingenious 
contrivances,  which  soon  found  the  oblivion  of  Fitch's  in- 
ventions. Subsequently  Eumsey,  another  ingenious  Ameri- 
can, sought  with  no  better  success  to  drive  a  boat  by  expel- 
ling water  from  the  stern.  When  it  was  announced  that  the 
great  Chancellor  also  had  a  scheme,  it  is  not  surprising, 
perhaps,  that  the  wags  of  the  Assembly  ridiculed  the 
project  as  idle  and  whimsical.  "Imagine  a  boat,"  said 
one,  "trying  to  propel  itself  by  squirting  water  through  its 
stern.-'  Another  spoke  of  it  as  "an  application  of  the  skunk 
principle."  Ezra  L'Hommedieu,  then  a  state  senator,  de- 
clared that  Livingston's  "steamboat  bill"  was  a  standing  sub- 
ject of  ridicule  throughout  the  entire  session. 

But  there  were  others  than  legislators  who  made  sport  of 
these  apparently  visionary  projects  to  settle  the  value  of 
steam  as  a  locomotive  power,  Benjamin  H.  Latrobe,  the 
most  eminent  engineer  in  America,  did  not  hesitate  to  over- 
w^helm  such  inventions  with  objections  that,  in  his  opinion, 
<?ould  never  be  overcome,  "There  are  indeed  general  objec- 
tions to  the  use  of  the  steam  engine  for  impelling  boats," 
he  wrote,  in  1803,  "from  which  no  particular  mode  of  applica- 
tion can  be  free.  These  are,  first,  the  weight  of  the  engine 
and  of  the  fuel;  second,  the  large  space  it  occupies;  third, 
the  tendency  of  its  action  to  rack  the  vessel  and  render  it 
leaky;  fourth,  the  expense  of  maintenance;  fifth,  the  irregu- 
larity of  its  motion  and  the  motion  of  the  water  in  the  boiler 
and  cistern,  and  of  the  fuel-vessel  in  rough  water;  sixth,  the 
difficulty  arising  from  the  liability  of  the  paddles  or  oars  to 
break,  if  light,  and  from  the  weight,  if  made  strong.  Per- 
haps some  of  the  objections  against  it  may  be  obviated.  That 
founded  on  the  expense  and  weight  of  the  fuel  may  not  for 
some  years  exist  in  the  Mississippi,  where  there  is  a  redun- 
dance of  wood  on  the  banks ;  but  the  cutting  and  loading  will 
be  almost  as  great  an  evil."^*^ 

»"  Rep.  to  the  Am.  Philosophical  Society,  Phila.,  May,  1803.    Within 


1798]  LIVINGSTON  AND   FULTON  77 

Mitchill,  however,  would  not  be  suppressed  by  the  fun- 
making  legislators  or  the  reasoning  of  a  conservative  engi- 
neer. ^'I  had  to  encounter  all  their  jokes  and  the  whole  of 
their  logic,"  he  wrote  a  friend.  His  bill  finally  became  a 
law,  and  Livingston,  with  the  help  of  the  Doctor,  placed  a 
horizontal  wheel  in  a  well  in  the  bottom  and  centre  of  a 
boat,  which  propelled  the  water  through  an  aperture  in  the 
stern.  The  small  engine,  however,  having  an  eighteen-inch 
cylinder  and  three  feet  stroke,  could  obtain  a  speed  of  only 
three  miles  an  hour,  and  finding  that  the  loss  of  power  did 
not  compensate  for  the  encumbrance  of  external  wheels  and 
the  action  of  the  waves,  which  he  hoped  to  escape,  Living- 
ston relinquished  the  plan.  Four  years  later,  however,  the 
Chancellor's  money  and  Robert  Fulton's  genius  were  to  en- 
rich the  world  with  a  discovery  that  has  immortalised  Ful- 
ton and  placed  Livingston's  name  among  the  patrons  of  the 
greatest  inventors. 

four  years  the  steamboat  was  running.  Latrobe  was  architect  of 
the  Capitol  at  Washington,  which  he  also  rebuilt  after  the  British 
burned  it  in  1814. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS 

1798-1800 

It  is  difficult  to  select  a  more  popular  or  satisfactory  ad- 
ministration than  was  Jay's  first  three  years  as  governor. 
Opposition  growing  out  of  his  famous  treaty  had  entirely 
subsided,  salutary  changes  in  laws  comforted  the  people,  and 
with  Hamilton's  financial  system,  then  thoroughly  under- 
stood and  appreciated,  came  unprecedented  good  times. 
To  all  appearances,  therefore,  Jay's  re-election  in  1798 
seemed  assured  by  an  increased  majority,  and  the  announce- 
ment that  Chancellor  Livingston  was  a  voluntary  rival 
proved  something  of  a  political  shock.^  For  many  years  the 
relations  between  Jay  and  Livingston  were  intimate.  They 
had  been  partners  in  the  law,  associates  in  the  Council  of 
Revision,  colleagues  in  Congress,  co-workers  in  the  formation 
of  a  state  constitution,  and  companions  in  the  Poughkeepsie 
convention.  Jay  had  succeeded  Livingston  in  1784  as  secre- 
tary of  foreign  affairs  under  the  Confederation,  and  while 
the  charming  Mrs.  Jay  was  giving  her  now  historic  dinners 
and  suppers  at  133  Broadway,  her  cousin,  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston, of  No.  3  Broadway,  was  among  her  most  distinguished 
guests.  In  her  home  Livingston  made  those  arrangements 
with  Hamilton  and  Jay,  the  Morrises  and  the  Schuylers, 
that  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  Governor  Clinton  and  his 
supporters  in  the  convention  which  ratified  the  Federal 
Constitution. 

But  after  Washington's  inauguration,  and  Jay's  appoint- 
ment as  chief  justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
the  Chancellor  had  been  as  intense,  if  not  as  violent  an  oppo- 
^  William  Jay,  Life  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  400. 
78 


1798]  EOBEKT  R.  LIVINGSTON  19 

nent  of  Federalism  as  Brockholst  Livingston.  In  their  criti- 
cism of  Jay's  treaty  these  two  cousins  had  been  especially 
bitter.  The  Chancellor  attacked  it  as  "Cato,"  Brockholst  as 
"Decius;"  the  one  spoke  against  it  on  the  platform  with 
Aaron  Burr,  the  other  voluntarily  joined  the  mob — if  he 
did  not  actually  throw  the  stone — that  wounded  Hamilton ; 
while  the  Chancellor  saw  a  copy  of  the  treaty  slowly  de- 
stroyed at  Bowling  Green,  Brockholst  coolly  witnessed  its 
distinguished  author  burned  in  effigy  "in  the  Fields."  Re- 
lationship did  not  spare  John  Jay.  Cousin  and  brother-in- 
law  had  the  "love  frenzy  for  France,"  which  finally  culmi- 
nated in  celebrating  the  ninth  anniversary  of  the  treaty  of 
alliance  between  France  and  America,  at  which  Brockholst 
became  proudly  eloquent,  and  the  Chancellor  most  happy  in 
the  felicity  of  an  historic  toast:  "May  the  present  coolness 
between  France  and  America  produce,  like  the  quarrels  of 
lovers,  a  renewal  of  love." 

Chancellor  Livingston  was  now  in  the  fifty-first  year  of 
his  age,  tall  and  handsome,  with  an  abundance  of  hair  al- 
ready turning  gray,  which  fell  in  ringlets  over  a  square  high 
forehead,  lending  a  certain  dignity  that  made  him  appear 
as  great  in  private  life  as  he  was  when  gowned  and  throned 
in  his  important  office.-  In  the  estimation  of  his  contempo- 
raries he  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  men  of  his  time,  and  the 
judgment  of  a  later  age  has  not  reversed  their  decision.  He 
added  learning  to  great  natural  ability,  and  brilliancy  to 
profound  thought ;  and  although  so  deaf  as  to  make  commu- 
nication with  him  difficult,  he  nearly  concealed  the  defect  by 
his  remarkable  eloquence  and  conversational  gifts.  Benja- 
min Franklin  called  him  "the  Cicero  of  America."  His  love 
for  the  beautiful  attracted  Edmund  Burke.  It  is  doubtful 
'  "The  tall  and  graceful  fignre  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  and  his 
polished  wit  and  classical  taste,  contributed  not  a  little  to  deepen 
the  impression  resulting  from  the  ingenuity  of  his  argument,  the 
vivacity  of  his  imagination,  and  the  dignity  of  his  station." — 
Chancellor  Kent's  address  before  The  Law^  Association  of  Newr 
York,  October  21,  1836.  George  Shea,  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
Appendix. 


so  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  viii. 

if  he  had  a  superior  in  the  State  in  the  knowledge  of  history 
and  the  classics,  and  in  the  study  of  science  Samuel  L. 
Mitchill  alone  stood  above  him.  He  lacked  the  creative 
genius  of  Hamilton,  the  prescient  gifts  of  Jay,  and  the  skill 
of  Burr  to  marshal  men  for  selfish  purposes,  but  he  was  at 
home  in  debate  with  the  ablest  men  of  his  time,  a  master 
of  sarcasm,  of  trenchant  wit,  and  of  felicitous  rhetoric. 

Livingston's  candidacy  for  governor  was  clearly  a  dash 
for  the  Presidency.  He  reasoned,  as  every  ambitious  New 
York  statesman  has  reasoned  from  that  day  to  this,  that  if 
he  could  carry  the  State  in  an  off  year,  he  would  be  needed 
in  a  presidential  year.  This  reasoning  reduces  the  govern- 
orship to  a  sort  of  spring-board  from  which  to  vault  into  the 
White  House,  and,  although  only  one  man  in  a  century  has 
performed  the  feat,  it  has  always  figured  as  a  popular  and 
potent  factor  in  the  settlement  of  political  nominations. 
George  Clinton  thought  promotion  would  come  to  him,  and 
Hamilton  inspired  Jay  with  a  similar  notion,  although  it 
is  doubtful  if  the  people  ever  seriously  considered  the  can- 
didacy of  either;  but  Livingston,  sanguine  of  better  treat- 
ment, was  willing  voluntarily  to  withdraw  from  the  pro- 
fessional path  along  which  he  had  moved  to  great  distinc- 
tion, staking  more  than  he  had  a  right  to  stake  on  success. 
In  his  reckoning,  as  the  sequel  showed,  he  miscalculated  the 
popularity  of  Jay  as  much  as  Hamilton  did  that  of  George 
Clinton  in  1789. 

The  Chancellor  undoubtedly  believed  the  tide  of  Federal- 
ism, which  had  been  steadily  rising  for  six  years,  was  about 
to  ebb.  There  were  sporadic  indications  of  it.  Perhaps 
Livingston  thought  it  had  already  turned,  since  Republicans 
had  recently  won  several  significant  elections.  Two  years 
before  DeWitt  Clinton  and  his  associates  had  suffered  de- 
feat in  a  city  which  now  returned  four  assemblymen  and  one 
senator  with  an  average  Republican  majorHy  of  more  than 
one  thousand.  This  indicated  that  the  constant  talk  of  mon- 
archical tendencies,  of  Hamilton's  centralising  measures, 
and  of  the  court  customs  introduced  bv  Washington  and  fol- 


1798]  AMEBIC  AN   ENVOYS    INSULTED  81 

lowed  by  Adams,  was  beginning  to  influence  the  timid  into 
voting  with  Republicans. 

But  counteracting  influences  were  also  at  work,  which 
Livingston,  in  his  zeal  for  political  honours,  possibly  did  not 
obsjerve.  New  England  Federalists,  attracted  by  the  fertile 
valleys  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Mohawk,  had  filled  the  west- 
ern district,  and  were  now  holding  it  faithful  to  the  party 
of  Jay  and  Hamilton,  Just  at  this  time,  too.  Federalists 
were  bound  to  be  strengthened  by  the  insulting  treatment  of 
American  envoys  sent  to  France  to  restore  friendly  inter- 
course between  the  two  republics.  President  Adams'  mes- 
sage, based  upon  their  correspondence,  asserted  that  nothing 
could  be  accomplished  ''on  terms  compatible  with  the  safety, 
honour,  and  essential  interests  of  the  United  States,"  and  ad- 
vised that  immediate  steps  be  taken  for  the  national  de- 
fence. What  the  President  had  withheld  for  prudential 
reasons,  the  public  did  not  know ;  but  it  knew  that  the  Cabi- 
net favoured  an  immediate  declaration  of  war,  and  that  the 
friends  of  the  Administration  in  Congress  were  preparing  for 
such  an  event.  This  of  itself  should  have  taken  Livingston 
out  of  the  gubernatorial  contest;  for  if  war  were  declared 
before  the  April  election,  the  result  would  assuredly  be  as 
disastrous  to  him  as  the  publication  of  Jay's  treaty  in  April, 
1795,  would  have  been  hurtful  to  the  Federalists.  But  Chan- 
cellor Livingston,  following  the  belief  of  his  party  that 
France  did  not  intend  to  go  to  war  with  America,  accepted 
what  he  had  been  seeking  for  months,  and  entered  the  cam- 
paign with  high  hopes. 

Jay  had  intended  retiring  from  public  life  at  the  close  of 
his  first  term  as  governor.^  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  he 
had  been  looking  forward  to  a  release  from  the  cares  of  of- 
fice, and  to  the  quiet  of  his  country  home  in  Westchester; 
but  "the  indignities  which  France  was  at  that  time  heaping 
upon  his  country,"  says  William  Jay,  his  son  and  biogra- 
pher, "and  the  probability  that  they  would  soon  lead  to  war, 
forbade  him  to  consult  his  personal  gratification."*  On  the 
^William  Jay,  Ldfe  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  1,  p.  400.  *  Ibid. 


82  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  vin. 

6th  of  March,  therefore,  he  accepted  renomination  on  a 
ticket  with  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  for  lieutenant-governor. 

It  is  significant  that  the  anti-Federalists  failed  to  nomi- 
nate a  lieutenant-governor  on  the  ticket  with  Livingston. 
Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  was  a  Federalist  of  the  old  school, 
a  brother-in-law  of  Hamilton,  and  a  vigorous  supporter  of 
his  party.  It  is  diflicult  to  accept  the  theory  that  none  of 
his  opponents  wanted  the  place;  it  is  easier  to  believe  that 
under  existing  conditions  no  one  of  sufficient  prominence 
cared  to  make  the  race,  especially  after  President  Adams 
had  published  the  correspondence  of  the  American  envoys, 
disclosing  Talleyrand's  demand  for  $240,000  as  a  gift  and 
16,000,000  as  a  loan,  with  the  threat  that  in  the  event  of 
failure  to  comply,  "steps  will  be  taken  immediately  to  ravage 
the  coast  of  the  United  States  by  French  frigates  from  St. 
Domingo."  The  display  of  such  despicable  greed,  coupled 
with  the  menace,  acted  very  much  as  the  fire  of  a  file  of  Brit- 
ish soldiers  did  in  Boston  in  1770,  and  sent  the  indignant 
and  eloquent  reply  of  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  then  minister  to 
France,  ringing  throughout  the  country — "Millions  for  de- 
fence, but  not  a  cent  for  tribute."  Within  four  weeks  Con- 
gress authorised  the  establishment  of  a  navy  department, 
the  construction  of  ten  war  vessels,  the  recapture  of  Ameri- 
can ships  unlawfully  seized,  the  purchase  of  cannon,  arms, 
and  military  stores,  and  the  raising  of  a  provisional  army 
of  ten  thousand,  with  the  acceptance  of  militia  volunteers. 
The  French  tricolour  gave  place  to  the  black  cockade,  a  sym- 
bol of  patriotism  in  Revolutionary  days,  and  "Hail  Colum- 
bia," then  first  published  and  set  to  the  "President's 
March,"  was  sung  to  the  wildest  delight  of  American  audi- 
ences in  theatres  and  churches. 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement  occurred  the  election  for 
governor.  The  outcome  was  a  decided  change,  sending  Jay's 
majority  up  to  2380.^  It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  how  much 
of  this  result  was  influenced  by  the  rising  war  cloud,  and 

"John  Jay,  16,012;  Eobert  Livingston,  13,632.  Civil  List,  State  of 
New  York,   (1887),  p.  1166. 


1798-1801]  JAY'S    SECOND   TERM  83 

how  much  is  to  be  credited  to  the  individuality  of  the  can- 
didates. Both  probably  entered  into  the  equation.  But  the 
fact  that  Jay  carried  legislative  districts  in  which  Republi- 
cans sent  DeWitt  Clinton  and  Ambrose  Spencer  to  the  Sen- 
ate, would  indicate  that  confidence  in  Jay,  if  not  dislike  of 
Livingston,  had  been  the  principal  factor  in  this  sweeping 
victory.  "The  result  of  this  election  terminated,  as  was  fore- 
seen," wrote  William  P.  Van  Ness,  four  years  later,  "in  the 
defeat  and  mortification  of  Mr.  Livingston,  and  confirmed 
the  conviction  of  the  party,  that  the  people  had  no  confidence 
in  his  political  integrity,  and  had  been  disgusted  by  his  un- 
warrantable expectations.  His  want  of  popularity  was  so 
well  known  that  nothing  could  have  induced  this  inexpedi- 
ent measure,  but  a  desire  to  show  the  futility  of  his  preten- 
sions, and  thus  in  future  avoid  his  hitherto  unceasing 
importunities."^ 

Livingston's  search  for  distinction  in  the  political  field 
seems  to  have  resulted  in  unhappiness.  The  distinguished 
ability  displayed  as  chancellor  followed  him  to  the  end,  but 
the  joy  of  public  life  vanished  when  he  entered  the  domain 
of  partisan  politics.  Had  he  possessed  those  qualities  of 
leadership  that  bind  party  and  friends  by  ties  of  unflinch- 
ing services,  he  might  have  reaped  the  reward  his  ambition 
so  ardently  craved ;  bat  his  peculiar  temper  unfitted  him  for 
such  a  career.  Jealous,  fretful,  sensitive,  and  suspicious,  he 
was  as  restless  as  his  eloquence  was  dazzling,  and,  although 
generous  to  the  poor,  his  political  methods  savoured  of  self- 
ishness, making  enemies,  divorcing  friends,  and  darkening 
his  pathway  with  gathering  clouds. 

The  story  of  John  Jay's  second  term  is  not  all  a  record  of 
success.  Strenuous  statesmen,  catching  the  contagion  of  ex- 
citement growing  out  of  the  war  news  from  France,  formed 
themselves  into  clubs,  made  eloquent  addresses,  and  cheered 
John  Adams  and  his  readiness  to  fight  rather  than  pay 
tribute,  while  the  Legislature,  in  extra  session,  responded  to 

•  William  P.  Van  Ness,  Examination  of  Charges  against  Aaron  Burr, 
p.  12. 


84  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  vm. 

Jay's  patriotic  appeal  by  unanimously  pledging  the  Presi- 
dent the  support  of  the  State,  and  making  appropriations 
for  the  repair  of  fortifications  and  the  purchase  of  munitions 
of  war.  From  all  indications,  the  Federalists  seemed  cer- 
tain to  continue  in  power  for  the  next  decade,  since  the  more 
their  opponents  sympathised  with  the  French,  the  stronger 
became  the  sentiment  against  them.  If  ever  there  was  a 
period  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  when  the  opposite 
party  should  have  been  encouraged  to  talk,  and  to  talk  loudly 
and  saucily,  it  was  ia  the  summer  of  1798,  when  the  Ameri- 
can people  had  waked  up  to  the  insulting  treatment  accorded 
their  envoys  in  France ;  but  the  Federalist  leaders,  horrified 
by  the  bloody  record  of  the  French  Revolution,  seemed  to 
cultivate  an  increasing  distrust  of  the  common  people,  whom 
they  now  sought  to  repress  by  the  historic  measures  known 
as  the  Naturalisation  Act  of  June  IS,  1798,  the  Alien  Act 
of  June  25,  and  the  Sedition  Act  of  July  14. 

The  briefest  recital  of  the  purpose  of  these  laws  is  suffi- 
cient to  prove  the  folly  of  the  administration  that  fathered 
them,  and  when  one  considers  the  possible  lengths  to  which 
an  official,  representing  the  President,  might  go  if  instigated 
by  private  or  party  revenge,  Edward  Livingston's  declara- 
tion that  they  ''would  have  disgraced  the  age  of  Gothic  bar- 
barity" does  not  seem  too  strong.^  Under  the  Alien  Act  per- 
sons not  citizens  of  the  United  States  could  be  summarily 
banished  at  the  sole  discretion  of  the  President,  without 
guilt  or  even  accusation,  thus  jeopardising  the  liberty  and 
business  of  the  most  peaceable  and  well-disposed  foreigner. 
Under  the  Act  of  Sedition  a  citizen  could  be  dragged  from 
his  bed  at  night  and  taken  hundreds  of  miles  from  home  to 
be  tried  for  circulating  a  petition  asking  that  these  laws  be 
repealed.  The  intended  effect  was  to  weed  out  the  foreign- 
born  and  crush  political  opponents,  and,  the  better  to  accom- 

'  "Let  lis  not  establish  a  tyranny,"  Hamilton  wrote  Oliver  Wol- 
cott. — Works  of,  Vol.  8,  p.  491.  "  Let  us  not  be  cruel  or  violent." — 
Ibid.,  490.  He  thought  the  Allen  Law  deficient  in  guarantees  of 
personal  liberty. — Ibid.,  5,  26. 


1799]  ERASTUS    ROOT  85 

plish  this  purpose,  the  Alien  Act  set  aside  trial  by  jury,  and 
the  Sedition  Act  transferred  prosecutions  from  state  courts- 
to  federal  tribunals. 

Governor  Jay  approved  these  extreme  measures  because 
of  alleged  secret  combinations  in  the  interest  of  the  French ; 
and,  although  no  proof  of  their  existence  appeared  except  in 
the  unsupported  statements  of  the  press,  he  submitted  to  the 
Legislature,  in  January,  1799,  several  amendments  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  proposed  by  Massachusetts,  increasing 
the  disability  of  foreigners,  and  otherwise  limiting  their 
rights  to  citizenship.  The  Legislature,  still  strongly  Federal 
in  both  its  branches,  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  amendments, 
and  the  Assembly  rejected  them  by  the  surprising  vote  of 
sixty-two  to  thirty-eight.  Then  came  up  the  famous  Ken- 
tucky and  Virginia  resolutions.  The  Virginia  resolves, 
drafted  by  Madison  and  passed  by  the  Virginia  Legislature, 
pronounced  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  ''palpable  and 
alarming  infractions  of  the  Constitution;"  the  Kentucky 
resolutions,  drafted  by  Jefferson,  declared  each  act  to  be 
''not  law,  but  altogether  void  and  of  no  force."  This  was 
nullification,  and  the  States  north  of  the  Potomac  hastened 
to  disavow  any  such  doctrine,  although  the  vote  in  the  New 
York  Assembly  came  perilously  near  indorsing  it. 

The  discussion  of  these  measures  gave  opportunity  for  the 
public  opening  of  a  great  career  in  New  York  legislation — a 
career  that  was  to  continue  into  the  years  made  memorable 
by  Martin  Van  Buren  and  William  L.  Marcy.  The  record  of 
New  York  party  politics  for  forty  j'ears  is  a  record  of  long 
and  brilliant  contests  in  which  Erastus  Root,  if  not  a  rec- 
ognised party  chieftain,  was  one  of  the  ablest  lieutenants 
that  marshalled  on  the  field  of  combat.  He  was  a  man  of  gi- 
gantic frame,  scholarly  and  much  given  to  letters,  and,  al- 
though somewhat  uncouth  in  manner  and  rough  in  speech, 
his  forceful  logic,  coupled  with  keen  wit  and  biting  sarcasm, 
made  him  a  dreaded  opponent  and  a  welcomed  ally.  He  re- 
sembled Hamilton  in  his  independence,  relying  less  upon  or- 
ganisation and  more  upon  the  strength  of  his  personality, 


86  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  vm. 

yet  shrewdly  holding  close  relations  with  those  whose  care- 
ful management  and  adroit  manipulation  of  the  spoils  kept 
men  in  line  whatever  the  policy  it  seemed  expedient  to  adopt. 
For  eleven  years  he  served  in  the  Assembly,  and  thrice  be- 
came speaker;  for  eight  years  he  served  in  the  Senate,  and 
twice  became  its  president ;  for  twelve  years  he  served  in  the 
lower  house  of  Congress,  and  once  became  lieutenant-gover- 
nor. Wherever  he  served,  he  was  recognised  as  a  master,  not 
always  consistent,  but  always  earnest,  eloquent,  and  popular, 
fighting  relentlessly  and  tirelessly,  and  compelling  respect 
even  when  unsuccessful. 

Just  now  Root  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Aaron  Burr  and  a 
bitter  opponent  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  He  was  only  twenty- 
six  years  old.  During  the  contest  over  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion he  was  a  leader  in  boyish  sports  at  his  Connecticut  home, 
thinking  more  of  the  next  wrestling  match  and  the  girl  he 
should  escort  from  the  lyceum  than  of  the  character  of  the 
constitution  under  which  he  should  live;  but  he  came  to  the 
Assembly  in  1798  a  staunch  supporter  of  republicanism,  be- 
lieving that  Federalists  should  give  place  to  men  inclined 
to  trust  the  people  with  larger  power,  and  in  this  spirit  he 
led  the  debate  against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  with  such 
brilliancy  that  he  leaped  into  prominence  at  a  single  bound. 
Freedom  and  fearlessness  characterised  the  work  of  this 
young  orator,  singling  him  out  as  the  people's  champion,  and 
giving  him  the  confidence  of  five  thousand  "Wild  Irishmen," 
as  Otis  called  them,  who  had  sought  America  as  an  asylum 
for  the  oppressed  of  all  nations.  Unrestrained  by  precedent 
and  unruled  by  fear  for  the  future,  he  spoke  with  confidence 
to  a  people  whom  he  delighted  with  the  breadth  and  liberal- 
ity of  his  views,  lifting  them  onto  heights  from  which  they 
had  never  before  surveyed  their  political  rights. 

In  the  debate  in  the  Assembly  on  the  indorsement  of  the 
Kentucky  resolutions  Root  maintained  with  great  force  the 
right  of  the  people's  representatives  in  the  Legislature  to  ex- 
press an  opinion  upon  an  act  of  Congress,  however  solemn, 
and  he  ridiculed  the  argument  that  questions  limited  to  the 


1799]  AMBROSE   SPENCER  87 

judiciary  were  beyoud  the  jurisdiction  of  any  other  body  of 
men  to  criticise  and  condemn.  This  touched  a  popular  chord, 
and  if  the  mere  expression  of  an  oi)inion  by  the  Assembly 
had  been  the  real  question  at  issue,  young  Root  might  have 
carried  his  point  as  he  did  the  fight  against  the  amendments 
proposed  by  Massachusetts.  But  there  was  one  question 
Root  did  not  successfully  meet.  Although  Jefferson's  eighth 
and  ninth  resolutions — declaring  that  whenever  the  general 
government  assumed  powers  not  delegated,  "a  nullification 
of  the  act  is  the  rightful  remedy"  of  every  State — had  been 
stricken  out,  the  dangerous  doctrine  was  still  present  in  the 
preamble,  making  it  apparent  to  the  friends  of  the  Constitu- 
tion that  the  promulgation  of  such  a  monstrous  heresy  would 
be  worse  than  the  acts  sought  to  be  annulled.  It  is  not  clear 
that  Root's  understanding  of  these  resolutions  went  so  far; 
for  the  question  discussed  by  him  concerned  only  the  right 
of  the  Legislature  to  express  an  opinion  respecting  the  wis- 
dom or  unwisdom  of  an  act  of  Congress.  Nor  does  it  appear 
that  he  favoured  what  afterward  became  known  as  "nullifi- 
cation ;"  for  it  is  certain  that  when,  thirty-four  years  later, 
the  doctrine  came  up  again  under  John  C.  Calhoun's  leader- 
ship, Erastus  Root,  then  in  Congress, struck  at  it  as  he  would 
at  the  head  of  a  viper,  becoming  the  fearless  expounder  of 
principles  which  civil  war  permanently  established. 

While  young  Root  was  leading  the  debate  in  the  Assembly, 
Ambrose  Spencer  led  it  in  the  Senate.  Spencer's  apostacy 
produced  a  profound  sensation  in  political  circles.  He  had 
given  no  intimation  of  a  change  of  political  principles.  Al- 
though still  a  young  man,  barely  thirty-three,  he  had  ranked 
among  the  foremost  leaders  of  the  Federalist  party,  having 
teen  honoured  as  an  assistant  attorney-general,  a  state  sena- 
tor, a  member  of  the  Council  of  Appointment,  a  friend  of 
Hamilton,  and  the  confidential  adviser  of  Jay.  The  latter's 
heart  might  well  sink  within  him  to  be  abandoned  by  such 
a  colleague  at  a  time  when  the  stability  of  the  Union  was 
insidiously  attacked;  nor  ought  Spencer  to  have  been  sur- 
prised that  public  rumour  immediately  set  to  work  to  find 


88  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  viii. 

some  reason  for  his  change  less  s>mple  and  less  honest,  per- 
haps, than  a  dislike  of  the  Federalist  polic}'.  Various  causes 
have  been  given  for  his  mysterious  behaviour.  Some  thought 
him  eager  for  a  high  mark  of  presidential  favour,  possibly  a 
mission  abroad,  which  was  not  warmly  advocated  by  Hamil- 
ton; others  believed  that  the  bitter  quarrel  between  Adams 
and  Hamilton  influenced  him  to  desert  a  sinking  party; 
but  the  rumour  generally  accepted  by  the  Federalists 
ascribed  it  to  his  failure  to  become  state  comptroller 
in  place  of  Samuel  Jones,  an  office  which  he  sought.  It  was 
recalled  that  shortly  after  Jones'  appointment,  Spencer 
raised  the  question,  with  some  show  of  bitterness,  that  Jones' 
seat  in  the  Senate  should  be  declared  vacant. 

Spencer  denied  the  charges  with  expletives  and  with  em- 
phasis, treating  the  accusations  as  a  calumny,  and  insisting 
that  his  change  of  principles  occurred  in  .the  spring  of  1798 
before  his  re-election  as  senator.  This  antedated  the  alien 
and  sedition  measures,  but  not  the  appointment  of  Samuel 
Jones,  making  his  conversion  contemporary  with  the  can- 
didacy for  governor  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  to  whom  he 
was  related.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  he  shared  Livingston's 
confidence  in  an  election  and  thought  it  a  good  time  to  join 
the  party  of  his  relative ;  but  whether  his  change  was  a  mat- 
ter of  principle,  of  self-interest,  or  of  resentment,  it  bit- 
terly stung  the  Federalists,  who  did  not  cease  to  assail  him 
as  a  turncoat  for  the  flesh-pots.^ 

The  debut  of  the  brilliant  Root  and  the  St.  Paul-like  con- 
version of  Ambrose  Spencer  were  not,  however,  needed  to 
overthrow  a  party  responsible  for  the  famous  alien  and  sedi-  \ 
tion  laws.  No  one  has  ever  yet  successfully  defended  this 
hasty,  ill-considered  legislation,  nor  has  any  one  ever  ad- 
mitted responsibility  for  it,  except  President  Adams  who  ap- 
proved it,  and  who,  up  to  the  last  moment  of  his  long  life, 

*  "Ambrose  Spencer's  politics  were  inconsistent  enoug-h  to  destroy 
the  good  name  of  any  man  in  New  England;  but  he  became  a  chief- 
justice  of  ability  and  integrity." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the 
United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  112. 


1800]  A   RASH   ACT  89 

contended  that  it  was  ''constitutional  and  salutary,  if  not 
necessary."  President  Adams  had,  indeed,  refrained  from 
using  the  power  so  lavishly  given  him ;  but  rash  subordinates 
listened  to  the  dictate  of  unwise  party  leaders.  The  ridicu- 
lous character  of  these  prosecutions  is  illustrated  by  a  fine  of 
one  hundred  dollars  because  one  defendant  wished  that  the 
wadding  used  in  a  salute  to  John  Adams  had  lodged  in  the 
ample  part  of  the  President's  trousers. 

But  the  sedition  law  had  a  more  serious  enemy  than  rash 
subordinates.  John  Armstrong,  author  of  the  celebrated 
'•Newburgh  Letters,"  and  until  recently  a  Federalist,  wrote 
a  vitriolic  petition  for  its  repeal,  which  Jedediah  Peck  circu- 
lated for  signatures.  This  incited  the  indiscreet  and  excit- 
able Judge  Cooper,  father  of  the  distinguished  novelist,  to 
begin  a  prosecution;  and  upon  his  complaint,  the  United 
States  marshal,  armed  with  a  bench-warrant,  carried  off 
Peck  to  New  York  City  for  trial.  It  is  two  hundred  miles 
from  Cooperstown  to  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1800  the  marshal  and  his  prisoner  were  five  days 
on  the  way.  The  newspapers  reported  Peck  as  "taken  from 
his  bed  at  midnight,  manacled,  and  dragged  from  his  home," 
because  he  dared  ask  his  neighbours  to  petition  Congress  to 
repeal  an  offensive  law.  "The  rule  of  George  Third,"  de- 
clared the  press,  "was  gracious  and  loving  compared  to  such 
tyranny."  In  the  wildest  delirium  of  revolutionary  days, 
when  patriots  were  refusing  to  drink  tea,  and  feeding  it  to 
the  fishes.  New  York  had  not  been  more  deeply  stirred  than 
now.  "A  hundred  missionaries  in  the  cause  of  democracy, 
stationed  between  New  York  and  Cooperstown,"  says  Ham- 
mond, the  historian,  "could  not  have  done  so  much  for  the 
Republican  cause  as  this  journey  of  Jedediah  Peck  from  Ot- 
sego to  the  capital  of  the  State.  It  was  nothing  less  than 
the  public  exhibition  of  a  suffering  martyr  for  the  freedom 
of  speech  and  the  press,  and  for  the  right  of  petition."^ 

This  was  the  political  condition  when  Aaron  Burr,  in  the 

spring  of  1800,  undertook  to  gain  twelve  electoral  votes  for 

"  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1,  p.  132. 


90  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS    [Chap.  viii. 

the  Republicans  by  carrying  the  Legislature  of  New  York. 
It  required  seventy  electoral  votes  to  choose  a  President,  and 
outside  of  New  York  the  anti-Federalists  could  count  sixty- 
one.  The  capture  of  this  State,  therefore,  would  give  them 
a  safe  majority.  Without  advertising  his  purposes,  Burr  in- 
troduced the  sly  methods  that  characterised  his  former  cam- 
paigns, beginning  with  the  selection  of  a  ticket  that  would 
commend  itself  to  all,  and  ending  with  an  organisation  that 
would  do  credit  to  the  management  of  the  later-day  chiefs  of 
Tammany.  To  avoid  the  already  growing  rivalry  between 
the  Clinton  and  Livingston  factions,  George  Clinton  and 
Brockholst  Livingston  headed  the  ticket,  followed  by 
Horatio  Gates  of  Revolutionary  fame,  John  Broome,  soon  to 
be  lieutenant-governor,  Samuel  Osgood,  for  two  years  Wash- 
ington's pcstmaster-general,  John  Swartout,  already  known 
for  his  vigorous  record  in  the  Assembly,  and  others  equally 
acceptable.  Burr  himself  stood  for  the  county  of  Orange. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  political  campaigning, 
too,  local  managers  prepared  lists  of  voters,  canvassed  wards 
by  streets,  held  meetings  throughout  the  city,  and  introduced 
other  methods  of  organisation  common  enough  nowadays, 
but  decidedly  novel  then. 

Hamilton  was  alive  to  the  importance  of  the  April  elec- 
tion, but  scarcely  responsible  for  the  critical  character  of  the 
situation.  He  had  not  approved  the  alien  and  sedition  meas- 
ures, nor  did  he  commit  himself  to  the  persecuting  policy 
sanctioned  by  most  Federal  leaders,  and  although  he  favoured 
suppressing  newspaper  libels  against  the  government,  he  was 
himself  alien-born,  and  of  a  mind  too  broad  not  to  under- 
stand the  danger  of  arousing  foreign-born  citizens  against 
his  party  on  lines  of  national  sentiment.  "If  we  make  no 
false  step,"  he  wrote  Oliver  Wolcott,  "we  shall  be  essentially 
united,  but  if  we  push  things  to  extremes,  we  shall  then  give 
to  faction  body  and  solidity.""  It  was  hasty  United  States 
attorneys  and  indiscreet  local  politicians  rather  than  the 

^"Hamilton's  Works   (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  491. 


1800]  HAMILTON    AND   BUER  91 

greatest  of  the  Federal  leaders,  who  gave  "to  faction  body 
and  solidity." 

Hamilton  threw  himself  with  energy  into  the  desperate 
fight.  For  four  days,  from  April  29  to  May  2,  while  the  polls 
were  open,  he  visited  every  voting  precinct,  appealing  to  the 
public  in  his  wonderfully  persuasive  and  captivating  man- 
ner. On  several  occasions  Burr  and  Hamilton  met,  and  it 
was  afterward  recalled  that  courtesy  characterised  the  con- 
duct of  each  toward  the  other,  one  champion  waiting  while 
the  other  took  his  turn.  Rarely  if  ever  in  the  history  of  the 
country  have  two  men  of  such  ability  and  astuteness  partici- 
pated in  a  local  canvass.  The  rivalry  was  all  the  more  ex- 
citing because  it  was  a  rivalry  of  styles  as  well  as  of  capaci- 
ties. Burr  was  smooth,  polished,  concise,  never  diffuse  or 
declamatory,  always  serious  and  impressive.  If  we  may  ac- 
cept contemporary  judgment,  he  was  a  good  speaker  whom 
everybody  was  curious  to  hear,  and  from  whom  no  one 
turned  away  in  disappointment.  On  the  other  hand,  Hamil- 
ton was  an  acknowledged  orator,  diffuse,  ornate,  full  of 
metaphor,  with  flashes  of  poetical  genius,  revelling  in  exuber- 
ant strength,  and  endowed  with  a  gift  of  argumentative  elo- 
quence which  appealed  to  the  intellect  and  the  feelings  at 
the  same  time.  Erastus  Root  says  Hamilton's  words  were  so 
well  chosen,  and  his  sentences  so  finely  formed  into  a  swell- 
ing current,  that  the  hearer  would  be  captivated  if  not  con- 
vinced, while  Burr's  arguments  were  generally  methodised 
and  compact.  To  this  Root  added  a  judgment,  after  thirty 
years'  experience  in  public  life  at  Washington  and  in  New 
York,  that  ''they  were  much  the  greatest  men  in 
the  State,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  men  in  the  United 
States." 

When  the  polls  closed  the  Republicans  had  carried  the 
Legislature  by  twenty-two  majority  on  joint  ballot.  This 
secured  to  them  the  election  of  the  needed  twelve  presiden- 
tial electors.  To  recover  their  loss  the  Federalists  now  clam- 
oured for  a  change  in  the  law  transferring  the  election  of 
presidential  electors  from  the  Legislature  to  districts  ere- 


92  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  FEDERALISTS  [Chap.  viit. 

ated  for  that  purpose.  Such  an  amendment  would  give  the 
Federalists  six  of  the  twelve  electors. 

This  was  Hamilton's  plan.  In  an  earnest  plea  he  urged 
Jay  to  convene  the  Legislature  in  extraordinary  session  for 
this  purpose.  "The  anti-Federal  party,"  he  wrote  to  the 
Governor,  "is  a  composition  indeed  of  very  incongruous  ma- 
terials, but  all  tending  to  mischief;  some  of  them  to  the  over- 
throw of  the  government  by  stripping  it  of  its  due  energies; 
others  of  them  by  revolutionising  it  after  the  manner  of 
Bonaparte.  The  government  must  not  be  confided  to  the  cus- 
tody of  its  enemies,  and,  although  the  measure  proposed  is 
open  to  objection,  a  popular  government  cannot  stand  if 
one  party  calls  to  its  aid  all  the  resources  which  vice  can 
give,  and  the  other,  however  pressing  the  emergency,  feels 
itself  obliged  to  confine  itself  within  the  ordinary  forms  of 
delicacy  and  decorum. "^^ 

Jay's  response  to  Hamilton's  proposal  is  not  of  record, 
but  some  time  afterward  the  great  Federalist's  letter  was 
found  carefully  filed  among  the  papers  in  the  public  ar- 
chives, bearing  an  indorsement  in  the  Governor's  handwrit- 
ing: "This  is  a  measure  for  party  purposes  which  I  think 
it  would  not  become  me  to  adopt." 

The  sincerity  of  Jay's  action  has  been  doubted.  He  was 
about  to  retire  from  public  life,  it  was  said,  with  no  political 
future  before  him,  and  with  that  courage  which  inspires  a 
man  under  such  circumstances,  he  declined  to  act.  But 
Jay's  treatment  of  Hamilton's  suggestion  stands  out  con- 
spicuously as  his  best  judgment  at  the  most  trying  moment 
in  a  long  and  eventful  life.  Jay  was  a  stalwart  Federalist. 
He  had  supported  Washington  and  Hamilton  in  the  making 
of  a  federal  constitution ;  he  had  approved  the  alien  and  se- 
dition laws;  he  had  favourably  reported  to  the  Legislature 
the  proposed  amendments  of  Massachusetts,  limiting  service 
in  Congress  to  native-born  citizens;  he  regarded  the  advent 
of  Jefferson  and  his  ideas  with  as  much  alarm  as  Hamilton, 
and  he  knew  as  well  as  Hamilton  that  the  adoption  of  the 
^Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  549. 


1800]  JAY'S   WISE    DECISION  93 

district  plan  of  choosing  electors  would  probably  defeat  the 
Virginian;  but  to  call  an  extra  session  of  the  Legislature 
for  the  purpose  indicated  by  Hamilton,  would  defeat  the  ex- 
pressed will  of  the  people  as  much  as  the  action  of  the  state 
canvassers  defeated  it  in  1792.  Should  he  follow  such  a 
precedent  and  save  his  party,  perhaps  his  country,  from  the 
dire  ills  so  vividly  portrayed  by  Hamilton?  The  responsibil- 
ity was  upon  him,  not  upon  Hamilton,  and  he  wisely  refused 
to  do  what  the  people  of  the  State  had  so  generally  and  prop- 
erly condemned  in  the  canvassers. 

Hamilton's  proposition  naturally  provoked  the  indigna- 
tion of  his  opponents,  and  later  writers  have  used  it  as  a 
text  for  unlimited  vituperation;  but  if  one  may  judge  from 
what  happened  and  continued  to  happen  during  the  next 
three  decades,  not  a  governor  who  followed  Jay  in  those 
eventful  years  would  have  declined  under  similar  circum- 
stances to  concur  in  Hamilton's  suggestion.  It  was  un- 
doubtedly a  desperate  proposal,  but  it  was  squarely  in  line 
with  the  practice  of  party  leaders  of  that  day.  George  Clin- 
ton countenanced,  if  he  did  not  absolutely  advise,  the  delib- 
erate disfranchisement  of  hundreds  of  voters  in  1792  that 
he  might  continue  governor.  A  few  years  later,  in  1816, 
methods  quite  as  disreputable  and  unscrupulous  were  prac- 
tised, that  Republicans  might  continue  to  control  the  Coun- 
cil of  Appointment.  Hamilton's  suggestion  involved  no  con- 
cealment, as  in  the  case  of  the  Manhattan  Bank,  which  Jay 
approved ;  no  violation  of  law,  as  in  the  Otsego  election  case, 
which  Clinton  approved;  no  deliberate  fraud,  as  in  the 
Allen-Fellows  case,  which  Tompkins  approved.  All  this  does 
not  lessen  the  wrong  involved  in  Hamilton's  proposed  viola- 
tion of  moral  ethics,  but  it  places  the  suggestion  in  the  envi- 
ronment to  which  it  properly  belongs,  making  it  appear  no 
worse  if  no  better  than  the  political  practices  of  that  day. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BURR 

1800 

The  ten  months  following  the  Republican  triumph  in  New 
York  on  May  2,  1800,  were  fateful  ones  for  Hamilton  and 
Burr.  It  is  not  easy  to  suggest  the  greater  sufferer,  Burr 
with  his  victory,  or  Hamilton  with  his  defeat.  Hamilton's 
bold  expedients  began  at  once;  Burr's  desperate  schemes 
waited  until  after  the  election  in  November;  but  when  the 
conflict  was  over,  the  political  influence  of  each  had  ebbed 
like  water  in  a  bay  after  a  tidal  wave.  Although  Jay's  re- 
fusal to  reconvene  the  old  Legislature  in  extra  session  sur- 
prised Hamilton  as  much  as  the  Republican  victory  itsalf, 
the  great  Federalist  did  not  despair.  He  still  thought  it 
possible  to  throw  the  election  of  President  into  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  to  that  end  he  wrote  his  friends  to 
give  equal  support  to  John  Adams  and  Charles  C.  Pinckney, 
the  candidates  of  the  Federal  party.  "This  is  the  only 
thing,"  he  said,  "that  can  possibly  save  us  from  the  fangs  of 
Jefferson."^ 

But  the  relations  between  Adams  and  Hamilton  were  now 
to  break.  For  twelve  years  Hamilton  had  kept  Adams  angry. 
He  began  in  1789  with  the  inconsiderate  and  needless  scheme 
of  scattering  the  electoral  votes  of  Federalists  for  second 
place,  lest  Washington  fail  of  the  highest  number,  and  thus 
reduced  Adams'  vote  to  thirty-four,  while  Washington  re- 
ceived sixty-nine.  In  1790  he  advised  similar  tactics,  in 
order  that  Thomas  Pinckney  might  get  first  place.  For  the 
past  three  years  the  President  had  endured  the  mortification 

^Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  549.  Letter  to  Theo.  Sedg- 
wick. 

94 


1800]  ADAMS'   DISLIKE   OF   HAMILTON  95- 

of  having  Hamilton  control  his  cabinet  advisers.  After  the 
loss  of  New  York,  however,  Adams  turned  elsewhere  for 
strength,  appointing  John  Marshall  secretary  of  state  in 
place  of  Timothy  Pickering,  and  Samuel  Dexter  secretary 
of  war  in  place  of  James  McHenry.  The  mutual  dislike  of 
Hamilton  and  Adams  had  become  so  intensified  that  the 
slightest  provocation  on  the  part  of  either  would  make  any 
form  of  political  reconciliation  impossible,  and  Adams'  re- 
construction of  his  Cabinet  furnished  this  provocation.  Pick- 
ering and  McHenry  were  Hamilton's  best  supporters.  They 
had  done  more  to  help  him  and  to  embarrass  Adams,  and 
their  dismissal,  because  of  the  loss  of  New  York,  made  Ham- 
ilton thirsty  for  revenge.  Pickering  suggested  "a  bold  and 
frank  exposure  of  Adams,"  offering  to  furnish  the  facts  if 
Hamilton  would  put  them  together,  and  agreeing  to  arrange 
with  George  Cabot  and  other  ultra  Federalists  of  New  Eng- 
land, known  as  the  ''Essex  Junto,"  to  throw  Adams  behind 
Charles  C.  Pinckney  in  the  electoral  vote.  Their  plan  was  to 
start  Pinckney  as  the  second  Federalist  candidate,  with  the 
hope  that  parties  would  be  so  divided  as  to  secure  his  elec- 
tion for  President.  It  was  nothing  more  than  the  old 
''double  chance"  manceuvres  of  1796,  when  Thomas  Pinckney 
was  Hamilton's  choice  for  President ;  but  the  iniquity  of  the 
scheme  was  the  deception  practised  upon  the  voters  who  de- 
sired Adams. 

Of  course,  Adams  soon  learned  of  the  revival  of  this  old 
conspiracy,  and  passionately  and  hastily  opened  a  raking  fire 
upon  the  "Essex  Junto,"  calling  them  a  "British  faction," 
with  Hamilton  as  its  chief,  a  designation  to  which  the  Re- 
publican press  had  made  them  peculiarly  sensitive.  This 
aroused  Hamilton,  who,  preliminary  to  a  quarrel,  addressed 
the  President,  asking  if  he  had  mentioned  the  writer  as  one 
who  belonged  to  a  British  faction.  Receiving  no  reply,  he 
again  wrote  the  President,  angrily  repelling  all  aspersions 
of  the  kind.    This  the  President  likewise  ignored. 

Then  Hamilton  listened  to  Timothy  Pickering.  Fiery  as 
his  temper  had  often  proved,  and  grotesquely  obstinate  as  he 


S6  MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AKD  BUER     [Chap.  ix. 

had  sometimes  shown  himself,  Hamilton's  most  erratic  im- 
pulse appears  like  the  coolness  of  Jay  when  contrasted  with 
the  conduct  upon  which  he  now  entered.  The  letter  he  pro- 
posed to  write,  ostensibly  in  justification  of  himself,  was  ap- 
parently intended  for  private  circulation  at  some  future  day 
among  Federal  leaders,  to  whom  it  would  furnish  reasons 
why  electors  should  unite  in  preferring  Pinckney.  It  is 
known,  too,  that  Hamilton's  coolest  and  ablest  advisers  op- 
posed such  a  letter,  recalling  the  congressional  caucus  agree- 
ment, which  he  had  himself  advised,  to  vote  fairly  for  both 
Adams  and  Pinckney.  Besides,  to  impair  confidence  in 
Adams  just  at  that  moment,  it  was  argued,  would  impair 
confidence  in  the  Federal  party,  while  at  best  such  a  letter 
could  only  produce  confusion  without  compensatory  results. 
But  between  Adams  and  Jefferson,  Hamilton  now  preferred 
the  latter.  "I  will  never  be  responsible  for  him  by  my  direct 
vote,"  he  wrote  in  May,  1800,  "even  though  the  consequence 
be  the  election  of  Jefferson."-  Moreover,  Hamilton  was  ac- 
customed to  give,  not  to  receive  orders.  Had  Washington 
lived,  Hamilton  would  doubtless  never  have  written  the  let- 
ter, but  now  he  wrote  it,  printed  it,  and  in  a  few  days  was 
forced  to  publish  it,  since  garbled  extracts  began  appearing 
in  the  press.  Many  theories  have  been  advanced  as  to  how 
it  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  public  printer,  some  fanciful, 
others  ridiculous,  and  none,  perhaps,  absolutely  truthful. 
The  story  that  Burr  unwittingly^  coaxed  a  printer's  errand 
boy  to  give  him  a  copy,  is  not  corroborated  by  Matthew  L. 
Davis ;  but,  however  the  publication  happened,  it  was  not  in- 
tended to  happen  in  that  way  and  at  that  time. 

It  was  an  ugly  letter,  not  up  to  Hamilton's  best  work. 
The  vindication  of  himself  and  the  Pinckneys  lost  itself  in 
the  severity  of  the  attack  upon  Adams,  whose  career  was  re- 
viewed from  the  distant  day  of  an  unsound  judgment  ven- 
tured in  military  affairs  during  the  Revolution,  to  the  latest 
display  of  a  consuming  egotism,  vanity,  and  jealousy  as 
President.  In  a  word,  all  the  quarrels,  resentments,  and  an- 
'^ Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  552. 


1800]  EXPOSUEE    OF    PAETY    QUARRELS  97 

tagonisms  which  had  torn  and  rent  the  Federal  party  for 
four  years,  but  which,  thanks  to  Washington,  had  not  become 
generally  known,  were  now,  in  a  moment,  officially  exposed 
to  the  whole  country,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  most 
Federalists,  and  to  the  great  delight  of  all  Republicans.  *'If 
the  single  purpose  had  been  to  defeat  the  President,"  said 
John  Adams,  "no  more  propitious  moment  could  have  been 
chosen."  Fisher  Ames  declared  that  "the  question  is  not 
how  we  shall  fight,  but  how  we  shall  fall."  In  vain  did 
Hamilton  journey  through  New  England,  struggling  to  gain 
votes  for  Pinckney;  in  vain  did  the  "Essex  Junto"  deplore 
the  appearance  of  a  document  certain  to  do  their  Jacobin 
opponents  great  service.  The  party,  already  practically  de- 
feated by  its  alien  and  sedition  legislation,  and  now  in- 
flamed with  angry  feelings,  hastened  on  to  the  inevitable 
catastrophe  like  a  boat  sucked  into  the  rushing  waters  of 
Niagara,  while  the  party  of  Jefferson,  united  in  prin- 
ciple, and  encouraged  by  the  divisions  of  their  ad- 
versaries, marched  on  to  easy  victory.  When  the  re- 
sult was  known,  Jefferson  and  Burr  had  each  seventy-three 
electoral  votes,  Adams  sixty-five,  Pinckney  sixty-four,  and 
Jay  one. 

It  is  difficult  to  realise  the  arguments  which  persuaded 
Hamilton  to  follow  the  suggestion  of  the  fallen  minister. 
Hot-tempered  and  impatient  of  restraint  as  he  was,  he  knew 
Adams'  attack  had  only  paid  him  in  kind.  Nor  is  mitigation 
of  Hamilton's  conduct  found  in  the  statement,  probably 
true,  that  the  party  could  not  in  any  case  have  carried  the 
election.  The  great  mass  of  Federalists  believed,  as  Hamil- 
ton wrote  Jay  when  asking  an  extra  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature, that  the  defeat  of  Jefferson  was  "the  only  means  to 
save  the  nation  from  more  disasters,"  and  they  naturally 
looked  to  him  to  accomplish  that  defeat.  Of  all  men  that 
ever  led  a  political  party,  therefore,  it  was  Hamilton's  duty 
to  sink  personal  antipathy,  but  in  this  attack  upon  Adams 
be  seems  deliberately  to  have  sinned  against  the  light.  This 
was  the  judgment  of  men  of  his  own  day,  and  at  the  end  of  a 


98  MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BURR    [Chap.  ix. 

century  it  is  the  judgment  of  men  who  cherish  his  teachings 
and  revere  his  memory. 

While  Hamilton  wrote  and  worried  and  wrestled,  Aaron 
Burr  rested  on  the  well-earned  laurels  of  victory.  It  had 
been  a  great  fight.  George  Clinton  did  not  take  kindly  to 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  stubbornly  resisted  allowing  the  use 
of  his  name  to  aid  the  Virginian's  promotion ;  Horatio  Gates 
and  other  prominent  citizens  who  had  left  the  political  arena 
years  before,  if  they  could  be  said  ever  to  have  entered  it, 
were  also  indisposed  to  head  a  movement  that  seemed  to 
them  certain  to  end  in  rout  and  confusion ;  but  Burr  held  on 
until  scruples  disappeared,  and  their  names  headed  a  win- 
ning ticket.  It  was  the  first  ray  of  light  to  break  the  Repub- 
lican gloom,  and  when,  six  months  later,  the  Empire  State 
declared  for  Jefferson  and  Burr  it  added  to  the  halo  already 
surrounding  the  grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

It  was  known  that  Jefferson  and  Burr  had  run  very  evenly, 
and  by  the  middle  of  December,  1800,  it  became  rumoured 
that  their  vote  was  a  tie.  "If  such  should  be  the  result,'^ 
Burr  wrote  Samuel  Smith,  a  Republican  congressman  from 
Maryland,  "every  man  who  knows  me  ought  to  know  that  I 
would  utterly  disclaim  all  competition.  Be  assured  that  the 
Federalist  party  can  entertain  no  wish  for  such  an  exchange. 
As  to  my  friends,  they  would  dishonour  my  views  and  insult 
my  feelings  by  a  suspicion  that  I  would  submit  to  be  instru- 
mental in  counteracting  the  wishes  and  the  expectations  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  And  I  now  constitute  you 
my  proxy  to  declare  these  sentiments  if  the  occasion  should 
require."^  At  the  time  this  letter  was  much  applauded  at 
public  dinners  and  other  Republican  gatherings  as  proof  of 
Burr's  respect  for  the  will  of  the  people. 

But  the  Federalists  had  plans  of  their  own.  "To  elect 
Burr  would  be  to  cover  the  opposition  with  chagrin,  and  to 
sow  among  them  the  seeds  of  a  morbid  division,"  wrote  Har- 
rison Gray  Otis  of  Massachusetts.*  Gradually  this  sentiment 
took  possession  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  States,  until 

*  James  Parton,  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  267.  *  Ibid.,  267. 


1800]  HAMILTON  OPPOSES  BUER  99 

it  seemed  to  be  the  prevailing  opinion  of  the  Federal  party. 
*'Some,  indeed  most  of  our  eastern  friends  are  warm  in  sup- 
port of  Burr,"  said  Gouverneur  Morris,  which  James  A.  Bay- 
ard of  Delaware  corroborated  in  a  note  to  Hamilton.  "There 
appears  to  be  a  strong  inclination  in  a  majority  of  the  Fed- 
eral party  to  support  Burr,"  he  said.^  ''The  current  has  al- 
ready acquired  considerable  force,  and  is  manifestly  increas- 
ing." John  Rutledge,  governor  of  South  Carolina,  thought 
^'his  x>romotion  will  be  prodigiously  afflicting  to  the  Virginia 
faction,  and  must  disjoint  the  party.  If  Mr.  B.'s  Presidency 
be  productive  of  evils,  it  will  be  very  easy  for  us  to  get  rid 
of  him.  Opposed  by  the  Virginia  party,  it  will  be  his  inter- 
est to  conciliate  the  Federalists."*^  Theodore  Sedgwick, 
speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  likewise  declared 
that  "most  of  the  Federalists  are  for  Burr.  It  is  very  evident 
that  the  Jacobins  dread  this  appointment  more  even  than 
that  of  General  Pinckney.  If  he  be  elected  by  the  Federalists 
against  the  hearly  opposition  of  the  Jacobins,  the  wounds 
mutually  given  and  received  will  probably  be  incurable. 
Each  will  have  committed  the  unpardonable  sin.  Burr  must 
depend  on  good  men  for  bis  support,  and  that  support  he 
cannot  receive,  but  by  a  conformity  to  their  views.  At  first, 
I  confess,  I  was  strongly  disposed  to  give  Jefferson  the  pref- 
erence, but  the  more  I  have  reflected,  the  more  I  have  in- 
clined to  the  other."^ 

To  such  a  course  Hamilton  was  bitterly  opposed,  not  only 
because  he  distrusted  Burr  more  than  he  did  Jefferson,  but 
because  the  Federalists  should  leave  the  responsibility  of  a 
selection  to  the  Republicans  and  thus  in  nowise  be  answer- 
able for  the  consequences.  ''If  the  anti-Federalists  who  pre- 
vailed in  the  election,"  he  wrote  Bayard  of  Delaware,  "are 
left  to  take  their  own  man,  they  remain  responsible,  and  the 
Federalists  remain  free,  united,  and  without  stain,  in  a  sit- 
nation  to  resist  with  effect  pernicious  measures.  If  the  Fed- 
eralists substitute  Burr,  they  adopt  him,  and  become  answer- 
able for  him.  Whatever  may  be  the  theory  of  the  case, 
^  James  T'arton,  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  270.     'Ibid.,    275.     Ubid.,  275. 


100         MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BURR    [Chap.  ix. 

abroad  and  at  home,  Mr.  Burr  must  become,  in  fact,  the  man 
of  our  party ;  and  if  he  acts  ill,  we  must  share  in  the  blame 
and  disgrace.  By  adopting  him,  we  do  all  we  can  to  recon- 
cile the  minds  of  Federalists  to  him,  and  we  prepare  them 
for  the  effectual  operation  of  his  acts.  He  will,  doubtless, 
gain  many  of  them;  and  the  Federalists  will  become  a  dis- 
organised and  contemptible  party.  Can  there  be  any  serious 
question  between  the  policy  of  leaving  the  anti-Federalists 
to  be  answerable  for  the  elevation  of  an  objectionable  man, 
and  that  of  adopting  him  ourselves,  and  becoming  answer- 
able for  a  man  who,  on  all  hands,  is  acknowledged  to  be  a 
complete  Catiline?  'Tis  enough  to  state  the  question  to  in- 
dicate the  answer,  if  reason,  not  passion,  presides  in  the  de- 
cision."^ 

Gouverneur  Morris,  now  a  United  States  senator,  had  al- 
ready taken  a  similar  position.  Bayard  of  Delaware,  who 
carried  the  vote  of  the  little  State  in  his  pocket,  and  several 
other  leading  Federalists,  listened  with  profound  respect; 
but  the  great  portion  of  the  party,  maddened  by  reverses, 
eager  for  revenge,  and  not  yet  mindless  of  Hamilton's  cam- 
paign indiscretion,  was  in  no  temper  to  follow  such  prudent 
advice.  As  already  indicated,  the  disposition  was  '*to  cover 
the  opposition  with  chagrin,"  and  "to  sow  among  them  the 
seeds  of  morbid  division."  Nor  did  they  agree  with  Hamil- 
ton's estimate  of  Burr,  which  seemed  to  them  attributable  to 
professional  and  personal  feuds,  but  maintained  that  he  was 
a  matter-of-fact  man,  artful  and  dexterous  to  accomplish  his 
ends,  and  without  pernicious  theories,  whose  very  selfishness 
was  a  guard  against  mischievous  foreign  predilection,  and 
whose  local  situation  was  helpful  to  his  appreciation  of  the 
utility  of  the  country's  commercial  and  federal  systems,  while 
his  elevation  to  the  Presidency  would  be  a  mortal  stab  to  the 
Jacobins,  breeding  invincible  hatred  and  compelling  him  to 
lean  on  the  Federalists,  who  had  nothing  to  fear  from  his 
ambition,  since  it  would  be  checked  by  his  good  sense,  or 
from  any  scheme  of  usurpation  that  he  might  attempt. 
^Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  581. 


1801]  HAMILTON   STIGMATISES   BUER  101 

In  vain  did  Hamilton  combat  these  points,  insisting  that 
Burr  was  a  man  of  extreme  and  irregular  ambition,  selfish 
to  a  degree  which  even  excluded  social  affection,  and  de- 
cidedly profligate.  He  admitted  that  he  was  far  more  artful 
than  wise,  far  more  dexterous  than  able,  but  held  that  art-^ 
fulness  and  dexterity  were  objections  rather  than  recommen- 
dations, while  he  thought  a  systematic  statesman  should 
have  a  theory.  "No  general  principles,"  he  said,  ''will  work 
much  better  than  erroneous  ones."^  As  to  foreign  predilec- 
tion, he  thought  Burr  as  warm  a  partisan  of  France  as  Jef- 
ferson, and  instead  of  leaning  on  good  men,  whom  he  knew 
would  never  support  his  bad  projects,  he  would  endeavour  to 
disorganise  both  parties,  and  from  the  wreck  form  a  third 
out  of  conspirators  and  other  men  fitted  by  character  to 
carry  out  his  schemes  of  usurpation.  As  the  campaign  ad- 
vanced he  became  more  emphatic,  insisting  that  Burr's  elec- 
tion would  disgrace  the  country  abroad,  and  that 
no  agreement  with  him  could  be  relied  upon.  "As 
well  think  to  bind  a  giant  by  a  cobweb  as  his  ambition  by 
promises."^'' 

In  the  meantime  the  electoral  count,  as  already  antici- 
pated, had  thrown  the  election  into  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, where  it  would  be  decided  on  the  11th  of  February, 
ISOl.  In  the  House  the  Republicans  controlled  eight  States 
to  the  Federalists'  six,  with  Maryland  and  Vermont  without 
a  majority  of  either  party.  To  elect  Jefferson,  therefore,  an 
additional  State  must  be  secured,  and  to  prevent  it,  if  possi- 
ble, the  Federalists,  by  a  party  caucus  held  in  January,  re- 
solved to  support  Burr,  Bayard  and  three  others,  any  one  of 
whom  could  decide  the  choice  for  Jefferson,  reserving  the 
right  to  limit  the  contest  to  March  4,  and  thus  avoid  the  risk 
of  general  anarchy  by  a  failure  to  elect. 

Very  naturally  the  Republicans  became  alarmed  and  ugly. 
Jefferson  wrote  Madison  of  the  deplorable  tie,  suggesting 
that  it  had  produced  great  dismay  and  gloom  among  Repub- 
licans and  exultation  among  Federalists,  "who  openly  de- 

^  Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  584.  ^'' Ibid.,  581. 


102        MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BUER    [Chap.  ix. 

•clare  they  will  prevent  an  election."^^  James  Gunn,  a  United 
States  senator  from  Georgia  and  a  Federalist,  advised  Ham- 
ilton that  ''the  Jacobins  are  determined  to  resist  the  election 
•of  Burr  at  every  hazard,  and  I  am  persuaded  they  have  taken 
their  ground  with  a  fixed  resolution  to  destroy  the  govern- 
ment rather  than  yield  their  point."^-  Madison  thought  if 
the  then  House  of  Representatives  did  not  choose  Jefferson, 
the  next  House  would  do  so,  supported  as  he  was  by  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  who  would  no  longer  submit  "to  the 
degradation  of  America  by  attempts  to  make  Burr  the 
President."^^ 

Not  a  word  came  from  Burr,  Jefferson  tried  repeatedly 
to  bring  him  to  an  explicit  understanding  without  avail.  His 
only  published  utterance  on  the  subject,  save  the  letter  to 
Samuel  Smith,  was  in  a  family  note  of  January  1.5  to  his  son- 
in-law,  Joseph  Allston  of  South  Carolina,  in  which  he  spoke 
of  the  tie  as  exciting  great  speculation  and  much  anxiety, 
adding,  "I  believe  that  all  will  be  well,  and  that  Jefferson 
will  be  our  President.""  Five  days  before  this.  Speaker 
Sedgwick  informed  Hamilton  that  "Burr  has  expressed  his 
displeasure  at  the  publication  of  his  letter  by  Samuel 
Smith,"^^  which,  wrote  Bayard  on  January  7,  "is  here  under- 
stood to  have  proceeded  either  from  a  false  calculation  as  to 
the  result  of  the  electoral  vote,  or  was  intended  as  a  cover  to 
blind  his  own  party."^''  But  there  was  no  danger  of  Joseph 
Allston  publishing  his  note,  at  least  not  until  the  fight  was 
over. 

Burr's  letter  to  his  son-in-law  bore  date  at  Albany.  Being 
a  member  of  the  Legislature  he  had  gone  there  early  in  Jan- 
uary, where  he  not  only  kept  silent  but  mysteriously  aloof, 
although  his  lobbyists  thronged  Washington  in  such  num- 
bers that  Senator  Morris,  on  February  14,  asked  his  col- 
league, John  Armstrong,  "how  it  happened  that  Burr,  who 
is  four  hundred  miles  off,  has  agents  here  at  work  with  great 

"  James  Parton,  Life  of  Aaron  Bun;  274.  "  Ibid.,  274. 

"J6i(7.,  274.  '*Ibid.,  279. 

"J6Jc7.,  272.  '  "/6id.,  272. 


isoi]  A  MANUFACTUEED   STOKY  103 

activity,  while  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  is  on  the  spot,  does  noth- 
ing?"^^  That  these  agents  understood  their  mission  and  were 
quite  as  active  as  Morris  represented,  was  evident  by  the  re- 
ports sent  from  time  to  time  to  Hamilton,  who  remained  in 
New  York.  "Some  who  pretend  to  know  his  views,"  wrote 
Morris,  ''think  he  will  bargain  with  the  Federalists."^^  Bay- 
ard was  also  approached.  "Persons  friendly  to  Mr.  Burr 
state  distinctly  that  he  is  willing  to  consider  the  Federalists 
as  his  friends,  and  to  accept  the  office  of  President  as  their 
gift."^^  As  early  as  January  10  Governor  Rutledge  wrote 
that  "we  are  assured  by  a  gentleman  who  lately  had  some 
conversation  with  Mr.  Burr  on  this  subject  that  he  is  dis- 
posed to  maintain  and  expand  our  systems."^** 

As  the  campaign  proceeded  it  became  evident  to  Burr  that 
Eepublicans  were  needed  as  well  as  Federalists,  and  a  bright 
young  man,  William  P.  Van  Ness,  who  had  accompanied 
Burr  to  Albany  as  a  favourite  companion,  wrote  Edward  Liv- 
ingston, the  brilliant  New  York  congressman,  that  "it  is 
the  sense  of  the  Republicans  in  this  State  that,  after  some 
trials  in  the  House,  Mr.  Jefferson  should  be  given  up  for  Mr. 
Burr."^^  This  was  wholly  conjectural,  and  Burr  and  his 
young  friend  knew  it;  but  it  was  a  part  of  the  game,  since 
Burr,  so  Hamilton  wrote  Morris,  "perfectly  understands 
himself  with  Edward  Livingston,  who  will  be  his  agent  at 
the  seat  of  government,"  adding  that  Burr  had  volunteered 
the  further  information  "that  the  Federalists  might  proceed 
in  the  certainty  that,  upon  a  second  ballot  New  York  and 
Tennessee  would  join  him."--  There  is  no  doubt  Burr  believed 
then,  and  for  some  time  afterward,  that  Edward  Livingston 
was  his  friend,  but  he  did  not  know  that  Jefferson  had  of- 
fered the  secretaryship  of  the  navy  to  Edward's  brother,  the 

"Jefferson's  Diary,   Feb.   14,   1801. 
"  James  Parton,  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  p.  272. 
"J&iU,  272.  -"Ibid.,  275. 

"  William  P.  Van  Ness,  Examination  of  Charges  against  Aaron  Bwrr, 
p.  6]. 

^Hamilton's  Works   (Lodg-e),  Vol.  8,  p.   586. 


104        MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BURR     [Chap.  ix. 

powerful  Chaiicellor,^^  or  that  the  Chancellor's  young  brother 
was  filling  Jefferson's  diary  with  the  doings  and  sayings  of 
those  who  were  interested  in  Burr's  election.  Edward  got 
a  United  States  attorneyship  for  his  treachery,  and  soon 
after  became  a  defaulter  for  thirty  thousand  dollars  under 
circumstances  of  culpable  carelessness,  as  the  Treasury 
thought.-* 

The  voting  began  on  February  11.  On  the  first  ballot 
eight  States  voted  for  Jefferson  and  six  for  Burr,  Vermont 
and  Maryland  being  neutralised  by  an  even  party  division. 
In  this  manner  the  voting  continued  for  six  days,  through 
thirty-five  ballots,  the  House  taking  recesses  to  give  members 
rest,  caucuses  opportunity  to  meet,  and  the  sick  time  to  be 
brought  in  on  their  beds.  Finally,  on  the  thirty-sixth  ballot, 
the  Vermont  Federalist  withdrew,  and  the  four  Maryland 
Federalists,  with  Bayard  of  Delaware,  put  in  blanks,  giving 
Jefferson  ten  States  and  Burr  five. 

Burr  had  played  his  game  with  the  skill  of  a  master.  The 
tactics  that  elected  him  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1791 
and  made  him  a  gubernatorial  possibility  in  1792  were  re- 
peated on  a  larger  scale  and  shrouded  in  deeper  mystery.  He 
had  appeared  to  disavow  any  intention  of  supplanting  Jef- 
ferson, and  yet  had  played  for  Federalist  and  Republican 
support  so  cleverly  that  Jefferson  pronounced  his  conduct 
^'honourable  and  decisive,  and  greatly  embarrassing"  to  those 
who  tried  to  ''debauch  him  from  his  good  faith."  In  the 
evening  of  the  inauguration,  President  and  Vice  President 
received  together  the  congratulations  of  their  countrymen  at 
the  presidential  mansion.  At  Albany  banqueting  Republi- 
cans drank  the  health  of  ''Aaron  Burr,  Vice  President  of 
the  United  States;  his  uniform  and  patriotic  exertions  in 
favour  of  Republicanism  eclipsed  only  by  his  late  disinter- 
ested conduct." 

==' Jefferson  to  Livingston,  Feb.  24,  1801;  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  4, 
p.  360. 

^*  Henry  Adams,  History  of  tlie  United  States,  Vol.  2,  p.  173.  lUd., 
Vol.  1,  p.  113. 


1801]  THE    TKUTH   REVEALED  105 

But  when  soberer  thoughts  came  the  Republican  mind 
was  disturbed  with  the  question  why  Burr,  after  the  Fed- 
eralists had  openly  resolved  to  support  him,  did  not  pro- 
claim on  the  housetop  what  he  had  written  to  Samuel  Smith 
before  the  tie  was  known.  Gradually  the  truth  began  to 
dawn  as  men  talked  and  compared  notes,  and  before  three 
months  had  elapsed  Jefferson's  estimate  of  Burr's  character 
corresponded  with  Hamilton's.  It  is  of  record  that  from 
1790  to  1800  Jefferson  considered  him  ''for  sale,"  and  when 
the  Virginians,  after  twice  refusing  to  vote  for  him,  finally 
sustained  him  for  Vice  President,  they  did  so  repenting  their 
act.-^ 

It  is  not  easy  to  indicate  the  source  of  Burr's  inherent 
badness.  His  father,  a  clergyman  of  rare  scholarship  and 
culture,  became,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  the  second  presi- 
dent of  Princeton  College,  while  Jonathan  Edwards,  his 
maternal  grandfather,  whose  "Freedom  of  the  Will"  made 
him  an  intellectual  world-force,  became  its  third  president; 
but  if  one  may  accept  contemporary  judgment,  Aaron  Burr 
had  scarcely  one  good  or  great  quality  of  heart.  Like  Lord 
Chesterfield,  his  favourite  author,  he  had  intellect  without 
truth  or  virtue;  like  Chesterfield,  too,  he  was  small  in  stature 
and  slender.^®  Here,  however,  the  comparison  must  end  if 
Lord  Hervey's  description  of  Chesterfield  be  accepted,  for  in- 

==  Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  229.  Jeffer- 
son's Anas:  Works,  Vol.  9,  p.  207. 

26  "\Yfien  the  Senate  met  at  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning-  of  March 
4,  1801,  Aaron  Burr  stood  at  the  desk,  and  having-  duly  sworn  to 
support  the  Constitution  took  his  seat  in  th-^  chair  as  Vice  Presi- 
dent. This  quiet,  gentlemanly  and  rather  dignified  figure,  hardly 
taller  than  Madison,  and  dressed  in  much  the  same  manner,  im- 
pressed with  favour  all  who  first  met  him.  An  aristocrat  imbued 
in  the  morality  of  Lord  Chesterfield  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
Colonel  Burr  was  the  chosen  head  of  Northern  democracy,  idol  of 
the  wards  of  New  York  City,  and  aspirant  to  the  highest  offices  he 
could  reach  by  means  legal  or  beyond  the  law;  for,  as  he  pleased 
himself  with  saying  after  the  manner  of  the  First  Consul  of  the 
French  Republic,  'great  souls  care  little  for  small  morals.'  " — Henry 
Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  195. 


106        MISTAKES  OF  HAMILTON  AND  BUKR    [Chap.  ix. 

stead  of  broad,  rough  features,  and  an  ugly  face,  Burr's  per- 
sonal appearance,  suggested  by  the  delicately  chiselled  fea- 
tures in  the  marble,  was  the  gift  of  a  mother  noted  for  beauty 
as  well  as  for  the  inheritance  of  her  father's  great  intellectu- 
ality. Writers  never  forget  the  large  black  eyes,  keen  and 
penetrating,  so  irresistible  to  gifted  and  beautiful  women. 
They  came  from  the  Edwards  side;  but  from  whence  came 
the  absence  of  honour  that  distinguished  this  son  and  grand- 
son of  the  Princeton  presidents,  tradition  does  not  in- 
form us. 


1 


CHAPTER   X 

JOHN  JAY  AND  DeWITT  CLINTON 

1800 

The  election  that  decided  the  contest  for  Jefferson,  re- 
turned DeWitt  Clinton  to  the  State  Senate,  and  a  Republican 
majority  to  the  Assembly.  As  soon  as  the  Legislature  met, 
therefore,  Clinton  proposed  a  new  Council  of  Appointment. 
Federalists  shrieked  in  amazement  at  such  a  suggestion, 
since  the  existing  Council  had  served  little  more  than  half 
its  term.  To  this  Republicans  replied,  good  naturedly,  that 
although  party  conditions  were  reversed,  arguments  re- 
mained the  same,  and  reminded  them  that  in  1794,  when  an 
anti-Federalist  Council  had  served  only  a  portion  of  its 
term,  the  Federalists  compelled  an  immediate  change. 
Whatever  was  fair  for  Federalists  then,  they  argued,  could 
not  be  unfair  for  Republicans  now.  If  it  was  preposterous, 
as  Josiah  Ogden  Hoffman  had  asserted,  for  a  Council  to 
serve  out  its  full  terra  in  1794,  it  was  preposterous  for  the 
Council  of  1800  to  serve  out  its  full  term;  if  Schuyler  was 
right  that  it  was  a  dangerous  and  unconstitutional  usurpa- 
tion of  power  for  the  anti-Federalist  Council  to  continue  its 
sittings,  it  was  a  dangerous  and  unconstitutional  usurpation 
of  power  for  the  Federalist  Council  of  1800  to  continue  its 
sittings.  Of  course  Federalists  were  wrong  in  1794,  and  Re- 
publicans were  wrong  in  1800,  but  there  was  as  much  poetic 
justice  in  the  situation  as  a  Republican  could  desire.  As  soon 
as  the  Assembly  had  organised,  therefore,  DeWitt  Clinton, 
Ambrose  Spencer,  Robert  Roseboom,  and  John  Sanders  be- 
came the  Council  of  Appointment.  Sanders  was  a  Federal- 
ist, but  Roseboom  was  a  Republican,  whose  pliancy  and 
weakness  made  him  the  tool  of  Clinton  and  Spencer. 

107 


108  JOHN  JAY  AND  DeWITT  CLINTON  [Chap.  x. 

DeWitt  Clinton  had  at  last  come  to  his  own.  Until  now 
his  life  had  been  uncheckered  by  important  incident  and  un- 
marked by  political  achievement.  He  had  run  rapidly 
through  the  grammar  school  of  Little  Britain,  his  native 
town;  through  the  academy  at  Kingston,  the  only  one  then 
in  the  State;  through  Columbia  College,  which  he  entered  as 
a  junior  at  fifteen  and  from  which  he  graduated  at  the  head 
of  his  class;  and  through  his  law  studies  with  Samuel  Jones. 
In  1789  came  an  appointment  as  private  secretary  to  his 
uncle,  George  Clinton.  When  Governor  Jay  sought  the  as- 
sistance of  another  in  1795,  Clinton  resumed  the  law;  but 
he  continued  to  practise  politics  for  a  living,  and  at  last 
found  himself  in  the  Assembly  of  1797.  He  was  then  twenty- 
eight,  strong,  handsome,  and  well  equipped  for  any  struggle. 
He  had  devoted  his  leisure  moments  to  reading,  for  which 
he  had  a  passion  that  lasted  him  all  his  lifetime.  He  was 
especially  fond  of  scientific  studies,  and  of  the  active-minded 
Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  six  years  his  senior,  who  gave  scientific 
reputation  to  the  whole  State. 

In  spite  of  his  love  for  science,  DeWitt  Clinton  was  a  born 
politician,  with  all  the  characteristic  incongruities  incident 
to  such  a  life.  He  had  the  selfishness  of  Livingston,  the  in- 
consistency of  Spencer,  the  imperiousness  of  Root,  and  the 
ability  of  a  statesman.  Unlike  most  other  men  of  his  party, 
he  did  not  rely  wholly  upon  discipline  and  organisation,  or 
upon  party  fealty  and  courtesy.  Hamilton  had  cherished 
the  hope  that  Clinton  might  become  a  Federalist,  not  because 
he  was  a  trimmer,  or  would  seek  a  party  in  power  simply  for 
the  spoils  in  sight,  but  because  he  had  the  breadth  and  liber- 
ality of  enlightened  opinions,  the  prophetic  Instinct,  and  the 
force  of  character  to  make  things  go  his  way,  without  drift- 
ing into  success  by  a  fortunate  turn  in  tide  and  wind.  He 
was  not  a  mere  day-dreamer,  a  theorist,  a  philosopher,  a 
scholar,  although  he  possessed  the  gifts  of  each.  He  was, 
rather,  a  man  of  action — self-willed,  self-reliant,  independent 
— as  ambitious  as  Burr  without  his  slippery  ways,  and  as  de- 
termined as  Hamilton  with  all  his  ability  to  criticise  an 


1796-1801]  A   POLITICAL   DEFECT  109 

opponent.  Clinton  relied  not  more  upon  men  than  upon 
measures,  a-nd  in  the  end  the  one  thing  that  made  him  supe- 
rior to  all  his  contemporaries  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
a  never-failing  belief  in  the  possibility  of  success  along  lines 
marked  out  for  his  life's  work.  He  had  faults  and  he  com- 
mitted errors.  His  one  great  political  defect  filled  him  with 
faults.  He  would  be  all  or  nothing.  Attachment  to  his  in- 
terests was  the  one  supreme  and  only  test  of  fitness  for 
favours  or  friendship,  and  at  one  time  or  another  he  quar- 
relled with  every  friend  who  sought  to  retain  independence  of 
action. 

Just  now  Clinton  was  looking  with  great  expectancy  into 
the  political  future.  From  defeat  in  1706  he  had  reached  the 
Assembly  in  1797,  and  then  passed  to  the  State  Senate  in 
1798;  and  from  defeat  in  1799  he  passed  again  into  the 
Senate  in  1800,  Thus  far  his  record  wns  without  blemish. 
As  a  lad  of  eighteen  he  sided  with  his  uncle  in  the  contest 
over  the  Federal  C®nstitution ;  but  once  it  became  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  land  he  gave  it  early  and  vigorous  support, 
not  even  soiling  his  career  by  a  vote  for  the  Kentucky  reso- 
lutions. Unlike  the  Livingstons,  he  found  little  to  commend 
in  the  controversy  with  Genet  and  the  French,  and  in  Jay's 
extra  session  of  the  Legislature  he  voted  arms  and  appro- 
priations to  sustain  the  hands  of  the  President  and  the  hon- 
our of  the  flag.  But  he  condemned  the  trend  of  Federalism  as 
unwise,  unpatriotic,  and  dangerous  to  the  liberty  of  the  citi- 
zen and  to  the  growth  of  the  country;  and  with  equal  force 
he  opposed  the  influence  of  the  French  Revolution,  maintain- 
ing that  deeds  of  violence  were  unnecessary  to  startle  the 
public  into  the  knowledge  that  suffering  exists,  and  that  bad 
laws  and  bad  social  conditions  result  in  hunger  and  misery. 
If  he  had  been  a  great  orator  he  would  have  charmed  the 
conservatives  who  hated  Federalism  and  dreaded  Jacobin- 
ism. Like  his  uncle  he  spoke  forcibly  and  with  clearness, 
but  without  grace  or  eloquence;  his  writing,  though  correct 
in  style  and  sufficiently  polished,  lacked  the  simplicity  and 
the  happy  gift  of  picturesque  phrase  which  characterised 


110  JOHN  JAY  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON     [Chap.  x. 

the  letters  of  so  many  of  the  public  men  of  that  day.  Yet  he 
was  a  noble  illustration  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  an 
indomitable  will,  backed  by  a  fearless  independence  and  a 
power  to  dominate  people  in  spite  of  antagonism  of  gi'eat 
and  successful  rivals. 

Clinton  was  now  only  at  the  opening  of  his  great  career. 
Even  at  this  time  his  contemporaries  seem  to  have  made  up 
their  minds  that  he  had  a  great  career  before  him,  and  when 
he  and  Governor  Jay  met  as  members  of  the  new  Council 
of  Appointment,  on  February  11,  1801,  it  was  like  Greek 
meeting  Greek.  If  Jay  was  the  mildest  mannered  man  in  the 
State,  he  was  also  one  of  the  firmest;  and  on  this  occasion 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  claim  the  exclusive  right  of  nomina- 
tion for  office  as  had  Governor  Clinton  in  1794.  Clinton^ 
on  the  other  hand,  following  the  course  pursued  by  Philip 
Schuyler,  boldly  and  persistently  claimed  a  concurrent  right 
on  the  part  of  the  senatorial  members.  The  break  came  when 
Jay  nominated  several  Federalists  for  sheriff  of  Orange 
County,  all  of  whom  were  rejected.  Then  Clinton  made  a 
nomination.  Instead  of  putting  the  question  Jay  made  a 
further  nomination,  on  which  the  Council  refused  to  vote. 
This  ended  the  session.  Jay  asked  for  time  to  consider,  and 
never  again  convened  the  Council;  but  two  days  later  he 
sent  a  message  to  the  Assembly,  reviewing  the  situation  and 
asking  its  advice.  He  also  requested  the  opinion  of  the 
Chancellor  and  the  Supreme  Court  Judges.  The  Assembly 
replied  that  it  was  a  constitutional  question  for  the  Govern- 
or and  the  Council ;  the  Judges  declined  to  express  an  opin- 
ion on  the  ground  that  it  was  extra-judicial.  Three  weeks 
later  Clinton,  Spencer,  and  Roseboom  reported  to  the  As- 
sembly, with  some  show  of  bitterness,  that  they  had  simply 
followed  the  precedent  of  Egbert  Benson's  appointment  ta 
the  Supreme  Court  in  1794,  an  appointment,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, which  was  made  on  the  nomination  of  Philip 
Schuyler  and  confirmed,  over  the  protest  of  Governor  Clin- 
ton, by  a  majority  of  the  Council. 

Jay's  failure  to  reconvene  the  Council  seemed  to  gratify 


1799]  ABOLITION   OF   SLAVERY  111 

Clinton — if,  indeed,  his  action  had  not  been  deliberately 
taken  to  provoke  the  Governor  into  such  a  course.  Appoint- 
ments made  under  such  conditions  could  scarcely  satisfy  an 
ambitious  leader  who  had  friends  to  reward;  and,  besides, 
the  election  of  a  new  governor  in  the  following  month  would 
enable  him  to  appoint  a  corps  of  men  willing  to  do  the  bid- 
ding of  their  new  master.  On  the  other  hand,  Governor  Jay 
closed  his  oflScial  career  as  he  began  it.  His  first  address  to 
the  Legislature  discovered  an  intention  of  adhering  to  the 
dogmas  of  civil  service,  and  so  far  as  directly  responsible  he 
seems  to  have  maintained  the  principle  of  dismissing  no  one 
for  political  reasons. 

The  closing  days  of  Jay's  public  life  included  an  act 
for  the  gradual  abolition  of  domestic  slavery.  It  cannot  be 
called  an  important  feature  of  his  administration,  since  Jay 
was  entitled  to  little  credit  for  bringing  it  about.  Although 
he  had  been  a  friend  of  emancipation,  and  as  president  of  an 
anti-slavery  society  had  characterised  slavery  as  an  evil  of 
^'criminal  dye,"  his  failure  to  recommend  emancipation  in 
his  messages  emphasises  the  suggestion  that  he  was  gov- 
erned by  the  fear  of  its  influence  upon  his  future  political 
career.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  he  resigned 
the  presidency  of  the  abolition  society  at  the  moment  of  his 
aroused  ambition  immediately  preceding  his  nomination  for 
governor  in  1792.  His  son  explains  that  the  people  of  the 
State  did  not  favour  abolition;  yet  the  reform  apparently 
needed  only  the  vigorous  assistance  of  the  Governor,  for  in 
1798  a  measure  similar  to  the  act  of  1799  failed  in  the  As- 
sembly only  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  chairman  in  commit- 
tee of  the  whole. 

One  thing,  though,  may  be  assumed,  that  a  man  so  ani- 
mated by  high  principles  as  John  Jay  must  have  felt  amply 
justified  in  taking  the  course  he  did.  Of  all  distinguished 
New  Yorkers  in  the  formative  period  of  the  government, 
John  Jay,  perhaps,  possessed  in  fullest  measure  the  resplen- 
dent gifts  that  immortalise  Hamilton.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
the  purity  of  his  life,  the  probity  of  his  actions,  the  excel- 


112  JOHN  JAY  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON     [Chap.  x. 

lence  of  his  public  purposes,  that  commended  him  to  the  af- 
fectionate regard  of  everybody.  "It  was  never  said  of  him," 
wrote  John  Quincy  Adams,  ''that  he  had  a  language  oflScial 
and  a  language  confidential."  During  a  political  career  of 
eight  and  twenty  years,  if  he  ever  departed  from  the  highest 
ideal  of  an  irreproachable  uprightness  of  character,  it  is  not 
of  record.  His  work  was  criticised,  often  severely,  at  times 
justly,  but  his  character  for  honesty  and  goodness  continued 
to  the  end  without  blemish. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  in  what  field  Jay  did  the  best  work. 
He  excelled  in  whatever  he  undertook.  He  had  poise,  force- 
fulness,  moderation,  moral  earnestness,  and  mental  clear- 
ness. Whether  at  home  or  abroad  the  country  knew  his 
abiding  place ;  for  his  well-doing  marked  his  whereabouts  as 
plainly  as  smoke  on  a  prairie  indicates  the  presence  of  a 
camp.  He  has  been  called  the  draftsman  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  the  constitution-maker  of  New  York,  the  negotia- 
tor of  the  peace  treaty,  and  dictator  under  the  Confedera- 
tion, and  he  came  very  near  being  all  that  such  designations 
imply.  In  a  word,  it  may  be  said  that  what  George  Wash- 
ington was  in  the  field,  in  council,  and  as  President,  John 
Jay  was  in  legislative  halls,  in  diplomatic  circles,  and  as  a 
jurist. 

The  crowning  act  of  his  life  was  undoubtedly  the  peace 
treaty  of  17S3.  But  great  as  was  this  diplomatic  triumph 
he  lived  long  enough  to  realise  that  the  failure  to  include 
Canada  within  the  young  Republic's  domain  was  ground  for 
just  criticism.  In  his  note  to  Richard  Oswald,  preliminary 
to  any  negotiations,  Franklin  suggested  the  cession  of  Can- 
ada in  token  "of  a  durable  peace  and  a  sweet  reconciliation," 
having  in  mind  England's  desire  that  loyalists  in  America  be 
restored  to  their  rights.  This  was  one  of  the  three  essentials 
to  peace,  and  to  meet  it  Franklin's  note  proposed  that  com- 
pensation be  paid  these  loyalists  out  of  the  sale  of  Canada's 
public  lands.  Subsequent  revelations  made  it  fairly  certain 
that  had  such  cession,  with  its  concessions  to  the  loyalists, 
been  firmly  pressed,  Canada  would  have  become   American 


1783]  CANADA  AND  THE  PEACE  TREATY  113 

territory.  Why  it  was  not  urged  remains  a  secret.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  Franklin  ever  brought  his  suggestion  to 
Oswald  to  the  attention  of  Jay/  but  it  is  a  source 
of  deep  regret  that  Jay's  profound  sagacity  did  not 
include  a  country  whose  existence  as  a  foreign  colony  on 
our  northern  border  has  given  rise  to  continued  embarrass- 
ment. The  feeling  involuntarily  possesses  one  that  he,  who 
owned  the  nerve  to  stop  all  negotiations  until  Englishman 
and  American  met  on  equal  terms  as  the  representatives  of 
equal  nations,  and  dared  to  break  the  specific  instructions 
of  Congress  when  he  believed  France  favoured  confining  the 
United  States  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Alleghanies, 
would  have  had  the  temerity  to  take  Canada,  had  the  great 
foresight  been  his  to  discern  the  irritating  annoyances  to 
which  its  independence  would  subject  us. 

Jay's  brief  tenure  of  the  chief-justiceship  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  gave  little  opportunity  to  test  his 
real  ability  as  a  jurist.  The  views  expressed  by  him  pending 
the  adoption  and  ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
•characterised  his  judicial  interpretation  of  that  instrument, 
and  he  lived  long  enough  to  see  his  doctrine  well  established 
that  ''government  proceeds  directly  from  the  people,  and  is 
ordained  and  established  in  the  name  of  the  people."  His 
distinguishing  trait  as  chief  justice  was  the  capacity  to  con- 
front, wisely  and  successfully,  the  difficulties  of  any  situa- 
tion by  his  own  unaided  powers  of  mind,  but  it  is  doubtful 

*  "Mr.  Oswald  returned  to  Paris  on  the  fourth  of  May  (1782),  hav- 
ing- been  absent  sixteen  days;  during  which  Dr.  Franklin  informed 
each  of  his  colleagues  of  what  had  occurred — Mr.  Jay,  at  Madrid, 
Mr.  Adams,  in  Holland — Mr.  Laurens,  on  parole,  in  London." — James 
Farton,  Life  and  Times  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Vol.  2,  p.  461.  Franklin 
wrote  to  Adams  and  Laurens  on  April  20,  suggesting  that  he  had 
"hinted  that,  if  England  should  make  us  a  voluntary  offer  of 
Canada,  expressly  for  that  purpose,  it  might  have  a  good  effect." 
Works  of  Franklin  (Sparks),  Vol.  9,  pp.  253-256.  But  his  letter  to 
Jay  simply  urged  the  latter's  coming  to  Paris  at  once.  Works  of 
Franklin  (Bigelow),  Vol.  8,  p.  48.  Also,  Works  of  Franklin  (Sparks), 
Vol.  9,  p.  254. 


114  JOHN  JAY  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON    [Chap.  x. 

if  the  Court,  under  bis  continued  domination,  would  have 
acquired  the  strength  and  public  confidence  given  it  by  John 
Marshall.  Jay  believed  that  ''under  a  system  so  defective  it 
would  not  obtain  the  energy,  weight,  and  dignity  essential 
to  its  affording  due  support  to  the  general  government.'^ 
This  was  one  reason  for  his  declining  to  return  to  the  of- 
fice after  he  ceased  to  be  governor ;  he  felt  his  inability  to  ac- 
complish what  the  Court  must  establish,  if  the  United  States 
continued  to  grow  into  a  world  power.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, it  was  well,  perhaps,  that  he  gave  place  to  John  Mar- 
shall, who  made  it  a  great,  supporting  pillar,  strong  enough 
to  resist  state  supremacy  on  the  one  side,  and  a  disregard 
of  the  rights  of  States  on  the  other;  but  Jay  did  more  than 
enough  to  confirm  the  wisdom  of  Washington,  who  declared 
that  in  making  the  appointment  he  exercised  his  "best 
judgment." 


CHAPTER  XI 

SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY 

1801-1803 

John  Jay,  tired  of  public  life,  now  sought  his  Westchester 
farm  to  enjoy  the  rest  of  an  honourable  retirement,  leaving 
the  race  for  governor  in  April,  1801,  to  Stephen  Van  Rensse- 
laer. On  the  other  hand,  George  Clinton,  accepting  the  Re- 
publican nomination,  got  onto  his  gouty  legs  and  made  the 
greatest  run  of  his  life.^  Outside  of  New  England,  Federal- 
ism had  become  old-fashioned  in  a  year.  Following  Jeflfer- 
son's  sweeping  social  success,  men  abandoned  knee  breeches 
and  became  democratic  in  garb  as  well  as  in  thought.  Hence- 
forth, New  York  Federalists  were  to  get  nothing  except 
through  bargains  and  an  occasional  capture  of  the  Council 
of  Appointment. 

The  election  of  George  Clinton  gave  the  party  of  Jefferson 
entire  control  of  the  State.  It  had  the  governor,  the  Legis- 
lature, and  the  Council  of  Appointment.  It  only  remained 
to  empower  the  Council  to  nominate  as  well  as  to  confirm, 
and  the  boss  system,  begun  in  1794,  would  have  the  sanction 
of  law.  For  this  purpose  delegates,  elected  by  the  people, 
met  at  Albany  on  the  13th  of  October,  1801,  and  organised  a 
constitutional  convention  by  the  election  of  Aaron  Burr  as 
president.  Fortune  had  thus  far  been  very  good  to  Burr.  At 
forty-five  he  stood  one  step  only  below  the  highest  place  in 
the  nation,  and  now  by  a  unanimous  vote  he  became  presi- 
dent of  the  second  constitutional  convention  of  the  Empire 
State.  His  position  was  certainly  imposing,  but  when  the 
<;onvention  declared,  as  it  did,  that  each  member  of  the 

•George  Clinton,  24,808;  Stephen  Van  Rensselear,  20,843. — Civil 
List,  State  of  New  York,  1887,  p.  166. 

115 


116  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xi. 

Council  had  the  right  to  nominate  as  well  as  to  confirm^ 
Burr  sealed  DeWitt  Clinton's  power  to  overthrow  and  hu- 
miliate him. 

In  its  uncompromising  character  DeWitt  Clinton's  dis- 
like of  Burr  resembled  Hamilton's,  although  for  entirely  dif- 
ferent reasons.  Hamilton  thought  him  a  dangerous  man, 
guided  neither  by  patriotism  nor  principle,  who  might  at 
any  moment  throttle  constitutional  government  and  set  up  a 
dictatorship  after  the  manner  of  Napoleon.  Clinton's  hos- 
tility arose  from  the  jealousy  of  an  ambitious  rival  who  saw 
no  room  in  New  York  for  two  Republican  bosses.  Accord- 
ingly, when  the  Council,  which  Jay  had  refused  to  reassem- 
ble, reconvened  under  the  summons  of  Governor  Clinton,  it 
quickly  disclosed  the  policy  of  destroying  Burr  and  satisfy- 
ing the  Livingstons.^  President  Jefferson  had  already  sent 
the  Chancellor  to  France,  and  the  Legislature  had  made 
John  Armstrong,  his  brother-in-law,  a  United  States  sena- 
tor. But  enough  of  the  Chancellor's  family  remained  to  fill 
other  important  offices,  and  the  Council  made  Edward,  a 
brother,  mayor  of  New  York;  Thomas  Tillotson,  a  brother- 
in-law,  secretary  of  state;  Morgan  Lewis,  a  fourth  brother- 
in-law,  chief  justice,  and  Brockholst  Livingston,  a  cousin, 
justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

Out  of  the  spoils  that  remained,  and  there  was  an  abun- 
dance, DeWitt  Clinton  and  Ambrose  Spencer  helped  them- 
selves ;  and  then  they  divided  the  balance  between  their  rela- 
tives and  supporters.  Sylvanus  Miller,  an  ardent  and  lifelong 
friend  of  the  former,  became  surrogate  of  New  York ;  Elisha 

^  "Young  DeWitt  Clinton  and  his  friend  Ambrose  Spencer  con- 
trolled this  Council,  and  they  were  not  persons  who  affected  scruple 
in  matters  of  political  self-interest.  They  swept  the  Federalists 
out  of  every  office  even  down  to  that  of  auctioneer,  and  without 
regard  to  appearances,  even  against  the  protests  of  the  Governor, 
installed  their  own  friends  and  family  connections  in  power." — 
Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  pp.  228,  229. 
"DeWitt  Clinton  was  hardly  less  responsible  than  Burr  himself  for 
lowering-  the  standard  of  New  York  politics,  and  indirectly  that  of 
the  nation." — Ibid.,  p.  112. 


1801]  THE   POLITICAL   GUILLOTINE  117 

Jenkins,  who  deserted  the  Federalists  in  company  with 
Spencer,  took  John  V.  Henry's  place  as  state  comptroller; 
Kichard  Riker,  the  friend  and  second  of  Clinton  in  his  fa- 
mous duel  with  John  Swartout,  became  district  attorney  in 
place  of  Cadwallader  D.  Colden,  a  worthy  grandson  of  "Old 
Silver  Locks,"  the  distinguished  colonial  lieutenant-governor; 
John  McKisson,  a  protege  of  Spencer,  took  the  clerkship 
of  the  Circuit  Court  from  William  Coleman,  subsequently 
the  brilliant  editor  of  the  Evening  Post,  established  by  Jay 
and  Hamilton;  and  William  Stewart,  a  brother-in-law  of 
George  Clinton,  displaced  Nathan  W.  Howell  as  assistant 
attorney-general.  Thus  the  work  of  the  political  guillotine 
went  on.  It  took  sheriffs  and  surrogates;  it  spared  neither 
county  clerks  nor  justices  of  the  peace;  it  left  not  a  mayor 
of  a  city,  nor  a  judge  of  a  county.  Even  the  residence  of  an 
appointee  did  not  control.  Sylvanus  Miller  of  Ulster  was 
made  surrogate  of  New  York  with  as  much  disregard  of  the 
people's  wishes  as  Ruggles  Hubbard  of  Rensselaer,  who  had 
visited  the  city  but  twice  and  knew  nothing  of  its  people  or 
its  life,  was  afterward  made  its  sheriff. 

When  Clinton  and  Spencer  finished  their  work  a  single 
Federalist,  Josiah  Ogden  Hoffman,  the  attorney-general,  re- 
mained in  office,  and  he  survived  only  until  Ambrose  Spen- 
cer could  take  his  place.  Soon  afterward  Spencer  was  ad- 
vanced to  the  Supreme  Court  in  place  of  Jacob  Radcliff,  a 
promotion  that  filled  Federalists  with  the  greatest  alarm. 
Looking  back  upon  the  distinguished  career  of  Chief  Justice 
Spencer,  it  seems  strange,  almost  ridiculous,  in  fact,  that  his 
appointment  to  the  bench  should  have  given  rise  to  such 
fears;  but  Spencer  had  been  the  rudest,  most  ferocious  op- 
ponent of  all.  The  Federalists  were  afraid  of  him  because 
they  believed  with  William  P.  Van  Ness,  the  young  friend  of 
Burr,  that  he  was  "governed  by  no  principles  or  feelings  ex- 
cept those  which  avarice  and  unprincipled  ambition  in- 
spired."^ Van  Ness  wrote  with  a  pen  dipped  in  gall,  yet,  if 
contemporary  criticism  be  accepted,  he  did  not  exaggerate 
^Letters  of  "Aristides,"  p.  42. 


118  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xi. 

the  feeling  entertained  for  Spencer  by  the  Federalists  of  that 
day.  Like  DeWitt  Clinton,  he  was  a  bad  hater,  often  inso- 
lent, sometimes  haughty,  and  always  arbitrary.  After  he 
left  the  Federalist  party  and  became  a  member  of  the  cele- 
brated Council  of  1801,  he  seemed  over-zealous  in  his  support 
of  the  men  he  had  recently  persecuted,  and  unnecessarily  se- 
vere in  his  treatment  of  former  associates.  **The  animosity 
of  the  apostate,"  said  Van  Ness,  "cannot  be  controlled.  Sav- 
age and  relentless,  he  thirsts  for  vengeance.  Such  is  emphat- 
ically the  temper  of  Ambrose  Spencer,  who,  after  his  Qon-  ■ 
version,  was  introduced  to  a  seat  in  the  Legislature,  by  his 
new  friends,  for  the  express  purpose  of  perplexing  and  perse- 
cuting his  old  ones."*  Spencer  never  got  over  being  a  vio-  | 
lent  partisan,  but  he  was  an  impartial,  honest  judge.  The 
strength  of  his  intellect  no  one  disputed,  and  if  his  political 
affiliations  seemed  to  warp  his  judgment  in  affairs  of  state, 
it  was  none  the  less  impartial  and  enlightened  when  brought 
to  bear  on  difficult  questions  of  law. 

The  timely  resignation  of  John  Armstrong  from  the 
United  States  Senate  made  room  for  DeWitt  Clinton,  who, 
however,  a  year  later,  resigned  the  senatorship  to  become 
mayor  of  New  York.  The  inherent  strength  of  the  United 
States  Senate  rested,  then  as  now,  upon  its  constitutional 
endowment,  but  the  small  body  of  men  composing  it,  having 
comparatively  little  to  do  and  doing  that  little  by  general 
assent,  with  no  record  of  their  debates,  evidently  did  not 
appreciate  that  it  was  the  most  powerful  single  chamber  in 
any  legislative  body  in  the  world.  It  is  doubtful  if  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  recognised  the  enormous  power 
they  had  given  it.  Certainly  DeWitt  Clinton  and  his  resign- 
ing colleagues  did  not  appreciate  that  the  combination  of  its 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial  functions  would  one  day 
practically  dominate  the  Executive  and  the  Congress,  for 
the  reason  that  its  members  are  the  constitutional  advisers 
of  the  President,  without  whose  assent  no  bill  can  become 
a  law,  no  office  can  be  filled,  no  officer  of  the  government  im- 
peached, and  no  treaty  made  operative. 

*  Letters  of  "Aristides,"  p.  42. 


1801]  PKOTOTYPE   OF   THE   PARTY   BOSS  H9 

In  taking  leave  of  the  United  States  Senate,  Clinton  prob- 
ably gave  little  thought  to  the  character  of  the  place,  whether 
it  was  a  step  up  or  a  step  down  to  the  mayoralty.  Just  then 
he  was  engaged  in  the  political  annihilation  of  Aaron  Burr, 
and  he  felt  the  necessity  of  entering  the  latter's  stronghold 
to  deprive  him  of  influence.  Out  of  six  or  seven  thousand 
appointments  made  by  the  Council  of  Appointment  not  a 
friend  of  Aaron  Burr  got  so  much  as  the  smallest  crumb 
from  the  well-filled  table.  Even  Burr  himself,  and  his  friend, 
John  Swartout,  were  forced  from  the  directorate  of  the  Man- 
hattan Bank  that  Burr  had  organised.  "With  astonish- 
ment,'' wrote  William  P.  Van  Ness,  "it  was  observed  that 
no  man,  however  virtuous,  however  unspotted  his  life  or  his 
fame,  could  be  advanced  to  the  most  unimportant  appoint- 
ment, unless  he  would  submit  to  abandon  all  intercourse 
with  Mr.  Burr,  vow  opposition  to  his  elevation,  and  like  a 
feudal  vassal  pledge  his  personal  services  to  traduce  his 
character  and  circulate  slander."" 

Governor  Clinton  feebly  opposed  this  wholesale  slaughter 
by  refusing  to  sign  the  minutes  of  the  Council  and  by  mak- 
ing written  protests  against  its  methods;  but  greater  em- 
phasis would  doubtless  have  availed  no  more,  since  the  con- 
stitutional convention  had  reduced  the  governor  to  the 
merest  figurehead.  His  one  vote  out  of  five  limited  the  extent 
of  his  prerogative.  Power  existed  in  the  combine  only,  and 
so  well  did  DeWitt  Clinton  control  that  when  the  famous 
Council  of  ISOl  had  finished  its  work  nothing  remained  for 
succeeding  Councils  to  do  until  Clinton,  the  prototype  of  the 
party  boss,  returned  in  1806  to  crush  the  Livingstons. 

Occasionally  a  decapitated  office-holder  fiercely  resented 
the  Council's  action,  and,  to  make  it  sting  the  more,  com- 
plimented the  Governor  for  his  patriotic  and  unselfish  oppo- 
sition. John  V.  Henry  evidenced  his  disgust  by  ever  after 
declining  public  office,  though  his  party  had  opportunities 
of  recognising  his  great  ability  and  rewarding  his  fidelity. 
Ebenezer  Foote,  a  bright  lawyer,  who  took  his  removal  from 
'Letters  of  "Aristides,"  p.  69. 


120  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xi. 

the  clerkship  of  Delaware  County  very  much  to  heart, 
opened  tire  on  Ambrose  Spencer,  charging  him  with  base 
and  unworthy  motives  in  separating  from  the  Federalists. 
To  this  Spencer  replied  with  characteristic  rhetoric.  "Your 
removal  was  an  act  of  justice  to  the  public,  inasmuch  as  the 
veriest  hypocrite  and  the  most  malignant  villain  in  the  State 
was  deprived  of  the  power  of  perpetuating  mischief.  If,  as 
you  insinuate,  your  interests  have  by  your  removal  been  ma- 
terially affected,  then,  sir,  like  many  men  more  honest  than 
yourself,  earn  your  bread  by  the  sweat  of  your  brow."^ 

At  Washington,  Jefferson  had  rewarded  friends  as  openly 
as  DeWitt  Clinton  took  care  of  them  in  Albany.  In  telling 
the  story,  James  A.  Bayard  of  Delaware  produced  an  ora- 
torical sensation  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  "And 
now,  sir,  let  me  ask  the  honourable  gentleman,"  said  the  con- 
gressman, in  reply  to  William  Giles'  defence  of  the  Virginia 
President,  "what  his  reflections  and  belief  will  be  when  he 
observes  that  every  man  on  whose  vote  the  event  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson's election  hung  has  since  been  distinguished  by  presi- 
dential favour.  Mr.  Charles  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina  was 
one  of  the  most  active,  efficient  and  successful  promoters  of 
the  election  of  the  present  chief  magistrate,  and  he  has  since 
been  appointed  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  court  of  Mad- 
rid— an  appointment  as  high  and  honourable  as  any  within 
the  gift  of  the  Executive.  I  know  what  was  the  value  of  the 
vote  of  Mr,  Claiborne  of  Tennessee ;  the  vote  of  a  State  was 
in  his  hands.  Mr.  Claiborne  has  since  been  raised  to  the 
high  dignity  of  governor  of  the  Mississippi  Territory.  I 
know  how  great,  and  how  greatly  felt,  was  the  importance 
of  the  vote  of  Mr.  Linn  of  New  Jersey.  The  delegation  of 
the  State  consists  of  five  members;  two  of  the  delegation 
were  decidedly  for  Mr.  Jefferson,  two  were  decidedly  for  Mr. 
Burr.  Mr.  Linn  was  considered  as  inclining  to  one  side,  but 
still  doubtful;  both  parties  looked  up  to  him  for  the  vote 
of  New  Jersey.  He  gave  it  to  Mr.  Jefferson ;  and  Mr.  Linn 
has  since  had  the  profitable  office  of  supervisor  of  his  district 

*  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1,  p.  177. 


1802]  BURR   THREATENS    JEFFERSON  121 

conferred  upon  him.  Mr.  Lyon  of  Vermont  was  in  this  in- 
stance an  important  man;  he  neutralised  the  vote  of  Ver- 
mont; his  absence  alone  would  have  given  the  State  to  Mr. 
Burr.  It  was  too  much  to  give  an  office  to  Mr.  Lyon;  his 
character  was  low ;  but  Mr.  Lyon's  son  has  been  handsomely 
provided  for  in  one  of  the  executive  offices,  I  shall  add  to 
the  catalogue  but  the  name  of  one  more  gentleman,  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Livingston  of  New  York.  I  knew  well — full  well  I 
knew — the  consequence  of  this  gentleman.  His  means  were 
not  limited  to  his  own  vote;  nay,  I  always  considered  more 
than  the  vote  of  New  York  within  his  power.  Mr.  Livingston 
has  been  made  the  attorney  for  the  district  of  New  York; 
the  road  of  preferment  has  been  opened  to  him,  and  his 
brother  has  been  raised  to  the  distinguished  place  of  minister 
plenipotentiary  to  the  French  Republic."^ 

Albert  Gallatin,  Jefferson's  secretary  of  the  treasury,, 
thought  Burr  less  selfish  than  either  the  Clintons  or  the 
Livingstons,  and,  on  the  score  of  office-seeking,  Gallitan  was. 
probably  correct.  But  Burr,  if  without  relatives,  had  sev- 
eral devoted  friends  whom  he  pressed  for  appointment, 
among  them  John  Swartout  for  marshal,  Daniel  Gelston  for 
collector,  Theodorus  Bailey  for  naval  officer,  and  Matthew  L. 
Davis  for  supervisor.  Swartout  succeeded,  but  DeWitt 
Clinton,  getting  wind  of  the  scheme,  entered  an  heroic  pro- 
test to  Jefferson,  who  quickly  concurred  in  Clinton's  wishes 
without  so  much  as  a  conference  with  Gallatin  or  Burr.  The 
latter,  hearing  rumours  of  the  secret  understanding,  sent  a 
sharp  letter  to  Gallatin,  pressing  Davis'  appointment  on  the 
ground  of  good  faith,  with  a  threat  that  he  would  no  longer 
be  trifled  with;  but  Gallatin  was  helpless  as  well  as  igno- 
rant, and  the  President  silent.  Davis'  journey  to  Monti- 
cello  developed  nothing  but  Jefferson's  insincerity,  and  on 
his  return  to  New  York  the  press  laughed  at  his  credulity. 

This  ended  Burr's  pretended  loyalty  to  the  Administration, 
On  his  return  to  Washington,  in  January,  1802,  he  quietly 
watched  his  opportunity,  and  two  weeks  later  gave  the  cast- 

*  Henry  Adams,    History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  pp.  294-5. 


122  SPOILS  AND  BEOILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xi. 

ing  vote  which  sent  Jefferson's  pet  measure,  the  repeal  of  the 
judiciary  act  of  1801,  to  a  select  committee  for  delay,  instead 
of  to  the  President  for  approval.  Soon  after,  at  a  Federalist 
banquet  celebrating  Washington's  birthday,  Burr  proposed 
the  toast,  ''The  union  of  all  honest  men."  This  was  the  fatal 
stab.  The  country  didn't  understand  it,  but  to  Jefferson 
and  the  Clintons  it  meant  all  that  Burr  intended,  and  from 
that  moment  DeWitt  Clinton's  newspaper,  the  American 
Citizen  and  Watchtoiver,  owned  by  his  cousin  and  edited  by 
James  Cheetham,  an  English  refugee,  took  up  the  challenge 
thus  thrown  down,  and  began  its  famous  attack  upon  the 
Vice  President. 

Burr's  conduct  during  those  momentous  weeks  when  Fed- 
eralists did  their  utmost  to  make  him  President,  gave  his 
rivals  ample  ground  for  creating  the  belief  that  he  had  evi- 
denced open  contempt  for  the  principles  of  honest  dealing. 
Had  he  published  a  letter  after  the  Federalists  decided  to 
support  him,  condemning  their  policy  as  a  conspiracy  to  de- 
prive the  people  of  their  choice  for  President,  and  refusing  to 
accept  an  election  at  their  hands  if  tendered  him,  it  must 
have  disarmed  his  critics  and  smoothed  his  pathway  to  fur- 
ther political  preferment;  but  his  failure  so  to  act,  coupled 
with  his  well-known  behaviour  and  the  activity  of  his  friends, 
gave  opponents  an  advantage  that  skill  and  ability  were  in- 
suflScient  to  overcome. 

James  Cheetham  handled  his  pen  like  a  bludgeon.  Even 
at  this  distance  of  time  Cheetham's  "View  of  Aaron  Burr's 
Political  Conduct,"  in  which  is  traced  the  Vice  President's 
alleged  intrigues  to  promote  himself  over  Jefferson,  is  in- 
teresting and  exciting.  Despite  its  bitter  sarcasm  and  tor- 
rent of  vituperation,  Cheetham's  array  of  facts  and  dates, 
the  designation  of  persons  and  places,  and  the  bold  assump- 
tions based  on  apparent  knowledge,  backed  by  foot-notes 
that  promised  absolute  proof  if  denial  were  made,  impress 
one  strongly.  There  is  much  that  is  weak,  much  that  is  only 
suspicion,  much  that  is  fanciful.  A  visit  to  an  uncle  in  Con- 
necticut, a  call  upon  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island,  a  com- 


1803]  THE   BRILLIANT   "ARISTIDES"  123 

munication  sent  under  cover  to  another,  letters  in  ciplier, 
pleasant  notices  in  Federalist  newspapers,  a  journey  of  Tim- 
othy Green  to  South  Carolina — all  these  belong  to  the  realm 
of  inference;  but  the  method  of  blending  them  with  well  es- 
tablished facts  was  so  artful,  the  writer's  sincerity  so  appar- 
ent, and  the  strokes  of  the  pen  so  bold  and  positive,  that  it  is 
easy  to  understand  the  effect  which  Cheetham's  accusation, 
taken  up  and  ceaselessly  repeated  by  other  papers,  would 
have  upon  the  political  fortunes  of  Burr. 

Nevertheless  the  Vice  President  remained  silent.  He  did 
not  feel,  or  seem  to  feel,  newspaper  criticism  with  the  acute- 
ness  of  a  sensitive  nature  trying  to  do  right.  ''They  are  so 
utterly  lost  on  me  that  I  should  never  have  seen  even  this," 
he  wrote  Theodosia,  "but  that  it  came  inclosed  to  me  in  a  let- 
ter from  New  York."  Still  Cheetham  kept  his  battery  at 
work.  After  his  ''Narrative"  came  the  "View,"  and  then,  in 
1803,  "Nine  Letters  on  the  Subject  of  Burr's  Defection,"  a 
heavier  volume,  a  sort  of  siege-gun,  brought  up  to  penetrate 
an  epidermis  heretofore  apparently  impregnable.  Finally, 
the  Albany  Register  took  up  the  matter,  followed  by  other 
Republican  papers,  until  their  purpose  to  drive  the  grandson 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  from  the  party  could  no  longer  be 
mistaken.® 

Burr's  coterie  of  devoted  friends  so  understood  it,  and 
when  the  gentle  Peter  Irving,  whose  younger  brother  was 
helping  the  newly  established  Chronicle  into  larger  cir- 
culation by  his  Jonathan  Oldstyle  essays,  showed  an  indis- 
position as  editor  of  the  Burrite  paper  to  vituperate  and  lam- 
poon in  return,  William  P.  Van  Ness,  the  famous  and  now 
historic  "Aristides,"  appeared    in  the  political  firmament 

*  "All  the  world  knew  that  not  Cheetham,  but  DeWitt  Clinton, 
thus  drag'g'ed  the  Vice  President  from  his  chair,  and  that  not  Burr's 
vices  but  his  influence  made  his  crimes  heinous;  that  behind  De- 
Witt  Clinton  stood  the  Virginia  dynasty,  dang-ling-  Burr's  office  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Clinton  family,  and  lavishing'  honours  and  money  on 
the  Livingstons.  All  this  was  as  clear  to  Burr  and  his  friends  as 
though  it  was  embodied  in  an  Act  of  Congress." — Henry  Adams, 
History  of  the  United  States,    Vol.  1,  pp.  331,  332. 


r 


124  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xr.  ^ 

with  the  suddenness  and  brilliancy  of  a  comet  that  dims  the 
light  of  stars. 

Van  Ness  coupled  real  literary  ability  with  political 
audacity,  putting  Cheetham's  fancy  flights  and  inferences  to 
sleep  as  if  they  were  babes  in  the  woods.  It  was  quickly 
seen  that  Cheetham  was  no  match  for  him.  He  had  neither 
the  finish  nor  the  venom.  Compared  to  the  sentences  of 
^'Aristides,"  as  polished  and  attractive  as  they  were  bitter 
and  ill-tempered,  Cheetham's  periods  seemed  coarse  and 
tame.  The  letters  of  Junius  did  not  make  themselves  felt  in 
English  political  life  more  than  did  this  pamphlet  in  the  po- 
litical circles  of  New  York.  It  was  novel,  it  was  brilliantly 
able,  and  it  drove  the  knife  deeper  and  surer  than  its  pred- 
ecessors. What  Taine,  the  great  French  writer,  said  of  Ju- 
nius might  with  equal  truth  be  said  of  "Aristides,"  that  if 
he  made  his  phrases  and  selected  his  epithets,  it  was  not 
from  the  love  of  style,  but  in  order  the  better  to  stamp  his 
insult.  No  one  knew  then,  nor  until  long  afterward,  who 
''Aristides"  was — not  even  Cheetham  could  pierce  the  incog- 
nito; but  every  one  knew  that  upon  him  the  full  mind  of 
Aaron  Burr  had  unloaded  a  volume  of  information  respect- 
ing men,  their  doings  and  sayings,  which  enriched  the  work 
and  made  his  rhetoric  an  instrument  of  torture.  It  bristled 
with  history  and  character  sketches.  Whatever  the  Vice 
President  knew,  or  thought  he  knew,  was  poured  into  those 
eighty  pages  with  a  staggering  fulness  and  disregard  of 
consequences  that  startled  the  political  world  and  capti- 
vated all  lovers  of  the  brilliant  and  sensational  in  literature. 
Confidences  were  revealed,  conversations  made  public,  quar- 
rels uncovered,  political  secrets  given  up,  and  the  gossip  of 
Council  and  Legislature  churned  into  a  story  that  pleased 
every  one.  What  Hamilton's  attack  on  Adams  did  for  Fed- 
eralists, "Aristides'  "  reply  to  Cheetham  did  for  the  Repub- 
licans; but  the  latter  wrote  with,  a  ferocity  unknown  to  the 
pages  of  the  great  Federalist's  unfortunate  letter. 

"Aristides"  struck  at  everybody  and  missed  no  one.  The 
Governor  "has  dwindled  into  the  mere  instrument  of  an  am-i 


1803]  AUDACITY    OF    DENUNCIATION  125 

bitious  relative;"  Tillotson  was  "a  contemptible  shuffling 
apothecary,  without  ingenuity  or  devise,  or  spirit  to  pursue 
any  systematic  plan  of  iniquity;"  Richard  Riker  was  ''an 
imbecile  and  obsequious  pettifogger,  a  vain  and  contemptible 
little  pest,  who  abandoned  the  Federal  standard  on  the  third 
day  of  the  election,  in  April,  1800 ;"  John  McKisson,  "an  exe- 
crable compound  of  every  species  of  vice,"  was  the  man 
whom  Clinton  "exuUingly  declared  a  great  scoundrel."  The 
attack  thus  daringly  begun  was  steadily  maintained.  Am- 
brose Spencer  was  "a  man  as  notoriously  infamous  as  the 
legitimate  offspring  of  treachery  and  fraud  can  possibly 
be;"  Samuel  Osgood,  "a  born  hypocrite,  propagated  false- 
hood for  the  purpose  of  slander  and  imposition;"  Chancellor 
Livingston,  "a  capricious,  visionary  theorist,"  was  "lamen- 
tably deficient  in  the  practical  knowledge  of  a  politician,  and 
heedless  of  important  and  laborious  pursuits,  at  which  his 
frivolous  mind  revolted." 

The  greatest  interest  of  the  pamphlet,  however,  began 
when  "Aristides,"  taking  up  the  cause  of  Burr,  struck  at 
higher  game  than  Richard  Riker  or  Ambrose  Spencer.  De- 
Witt  Clinton  was  portrayed  as  "formed  for  mischief,"  "in- 
flated with  vanity,"  "cruel  by  nature,"  "an  object  of  derision 
and  disgust,"  "a  dissolute  and  desperate  intriguer,"  "an 
adept  in  moral  turpitude,  skilled  in  all  the  combination  of 
treachery  and  fraud,  with  a  mind  matured  by  the  practice 
of  iniquity,  and  unalloyed  with  any  virtuous  principle." 
"Was  it  not  disgraceful  to  political  controversy,"  continues 
^'Aristides,"  with  an  audacity  of  denunciation  and  sternness 
of  animosity,  "I  would  develop  the  dark  and  gloomy  disor- 
ders of  his  malignant  bosom,  and  trace  each  convulsive  vi- 
bration of  his  wicked  heart.  He  may  justly  be  ranked  among 
those,  who,  though  destitute  of  sound  understandings,  are 
still  rendered  dangerous  to  society  by  the  intrinsic  baseness 
of  character  that  engenders  hatred  to  everything  good  and 
valuable  in  the  world;  who,  with  barbarous  malignity,  view 
the  prevalence  of  moral  principles,  and  the  extension  of 
benevolent  designs;  who,  foes  to  virtue,  seek  the  subversion 


126  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTORY    [Chap.  xi. 

of  every  valuable  institution,  and  meditate  the  introduction 
of  wild  and  furious  disorders  among  the  supporters  of  pub- 
lic virtue.  His  intimacy  with  men  who  have  long  since  dis- 
owned all  regard  to  decency  and  have  become  the  daring  ad- 
vocates of  every  species  of  atrocity ;  his  indissoluble  connec- 
tion with  those,  who,  by  their  lives,  have  become  the  finished 
examples  of  profligacy  and  corruption ;  who  have  sworn  en- 
mity, severe  and  eternal,  to  the  altar  of  our  religion  and  the 
prosperity  of  our  government,  must  infallibly  exclude  him 
from  the  confidence  of  reputable  men.  What  sentiments  can 
be  entertained  for  him,  but  those  of  hatred  and  contempt, 
when  he  is  seen  the  constant  associate  of  a  man  whose  name 
has  become  synonymous  with  vice,  a  dissolute  and  fearless 
assassin  of  private  character,  of  domestic  comfort,  and  of  so- 
cial happiness ;  when  he  is  known  to  be  the  bosom  friend  and 
supporter  of  the  profligate  and  abandoned  libertine,  who, 
from  the  vulgar  debauches  of  night,  hastens  again  to  the 
invasion  of  private  property.  Who,  through  the  robbery  of 
the  public  revenue,  and  the  violation  of  private  seals,  hurries 
down  the  precipice  of  deep  and  desperate  villainy." 

This  parting  shot  at  Cheetham  penetrated  the  most  secret 
corners  of  private  life,  and  leaves  an  impression  that  Cicero's 
denunciation  of  Catiline  had  delighted  the  youth  of  "Aris- 
tides."  It  would  be  fruitless  to  attempt  the  separation  of 
the  truth  from  the  undeserved  reproaches  of  Van  Ness,  but 
at  the  end  of  the  discussion.  Burr's  character  had  not  bene- 
fited. However  unscrupulous  and  selfish  the  Clintons  and  the 
Livingstons  might  be,  Burr's  unprincipled  conduct  was  fixed 
in  the  mind  of  his  party,  not  by  Cheetham's  indulgence  in 
fancy  and  inference,  but  by  the  well  known  and  well  estab- 
lished facts  of  history,  which  no  rhetoric  could  wipe  out,  and 
no  denunciation  strengthen. 

In  the  days  of  the  duello  such  a  war  of  words  could  hardly 
go  on  for  two  or  three  years  without  a  resort  to  the  pistol. 
Cheetham's  pen  had  stirred  up  the  tongues  of  men  who  re- 
sented charge  with  countercharge,  and  the  high  spirited 
United   States   marshal,   John   Swartout,   the   only   friend 


1802]  CLINTON  SHOOTS  RIKEK  127 

of  Burr  in  oflSce,  was  quick  to  declare  that  DeWitt 
Clinton's  opposition  to  the  Vice  President  was  based 
upon  unworthy  and  selfish  motives.  Clinton  answered 
promptly  and  passionately.  The  Governor's  nephew 
displayed  a  fondness  for  indulging  the  use  of  epithets 
even  in  mature  years,  after  he  had  quarrelled  with 
William  L.  Marcy  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  In  those 
calmer  days  when  age  is  supposed  to  bring  a  desire  for  peace, 
he  was  accustomed  to  call  Erastus  Root  "a  bad  man,"  Sam- 
uel Young  ''much  of  an  imbecile,"  Marcy  "a  scoundrel,"  and 
Van  Buren  ''the  prince  of  villains."  Just  now,  however, 
Clinton  was  younger,  only  thirty-two  years  old,  about  the 
age  of  Swartout,  and  on  hearing  of  the  latter's  criticism  he 
trebled  his  epithets,  pronouncing  him  '*a  liar,  a  scoundrel 
and  a  villain."  Swartout  quickly  demanded  a  retraction, 
which  Clinton  declined  unless  the  Marshal  first  withdrew 
his  offensive  words.  Thereupon,  the  latter  sent  a  challenge, 
and  Clinton,  calling  in  his  friend,  Richard  Riker,  the  district 
attorney,  met  his  adversary  the  next  day  at  Weehawken  and 
exchanged  three  shots  without  effect.  On  the  fourth  Clinton's 
bullet  struck  Swartout's  left  leg  just  below  the  knee,  and 
while  the  surgeon  was  cutting  it  out,  the  Marshal  renewed 
his  demand  for  an  apology.  Clinton  still  refused,  although 
expressing  entire  willingness  to  shake  hands  and  drop  the 
matter.  On  the  fifth  shot,  the  Marshal  caught  Clinton's  ball 
in  the  same  leg  just  above  the  ankle.  Still  standing  steadily 
at  his  post  and  perfectly  composed,  Swartout  demanded  fur- 
ther satisfaction ;  but  Clinton,  tired  of  filling  his  antagonist 
with  lead,  declined  to  shoot  again  and  left  the  field.  In  the 
gossip  following  the  duel,  Riker  reported  Clinton  as  saying 
in  the  course  of  the  contest,  "I  wish  I  had  the  principal 
here."''  The  principal,  of  course,  was  Burr,  to  whose  house 
the  wounded  Swartout  was  taken.  ''No  one  ever  explained," 
says  Henry  Adams,"  "why  Burr  did  not  drag  DeWitt  Clin- 

'  Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  332. 

'"  Ibid.,  332. 

Writing  to  Henry  Post  of  the  duel,  Clinton  (using-  the  name, 
"Clinton,"  instead  of  the  pronoun   "I")    said:    "The  affair   of   the 


128  SPOILS  AND  BROILS  OF  VICTOEY     [Chap.  xi. 

ton  from  his  ambush  and  shoot  him,  as  two  years  later  he 
shot  Alexander  Hamilton  with  less  provocation." 

Out  of  this  quarrel  grew  another,  in  which  Robert  Swart- 
out,  John's  younger  brother,  fought  Riker,  wounding  him  se- 
verely. William  Coleman  of  the  Evening  Post,  in  letting  fly 
some  poisoned  arrows,  also  got  tangled  up  with  Cheetham. 
''Lie  on  Duane,  lie  on  for  pay,  and  Cheetham,  lie  thou  too; 
more  against  truth  you  cannot  say,  than  truth  can  say 
'gainst  yon."  The  spicy  epigrams  ended  in  a  challenge,  but 
Cheetham  made  such  haste  to  adjust  matters  that  a  report 
got  abroad  of  his  having  shown  the  white  feather.  Harbour- 
Master  Thompson,  an  appointee  of  Clinton,  now  championed 
Cheetham's  cause,  declaring  that  Coleman  had  weakened. 
Immediately  the  young  editor  sent  him  a  challenge,  and, 
without  much  ado,  they  fought  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city, 
now  the  foot  of  Twenty-first  Street,  in  the  twilight  of  a  cold 
winter  day,  exchanging  two  shots  without  effect.  Meantime, 
the  growing  darkness  compelled  the  determined  combatants 
to  move  closer  together,  and  at  the  next  shot  Thompson, 
mortally  wounded,  fell  forward  into  the  snow.^^ 

duel  ought  not  to  be  brought  up.  It  was  a  silly  affair.  Clinton 
ought  to  have  declined  the  challenge  of  the  bully,  and  have  chal- 
lenged the  principal,  who  was  Burr.  There  were  five  shots,  the 
antagonist  wounded  twice,  and  fell.  C.  behaved  with  cool  ccfur- 
age,  and  after  the  affair  was  over  challenged  Burr  on  the  field." — 
Harper's  Magazine,  Vol.  50,  p.  565.  "How  Clinton  should  have  chal- 
lenged Burr  on  the  field,"  writes  John  Bigelow,  in  Harper's  New 
Monthly  Magazine  for  May,  1875,  "without  its  resulting  in  a  meeting 
is  not  quite  intelligible  to  us  now.  Though  not  much  given  to  the 
redress  of  personal  grievances  in  that  way.  Burr  was  the  last  man 
to  leave  a  hostile  message  from  an  adversary  like  Clinton,  then  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  unanswered." 

"  "Thompson  was  brought,"  saj's  William  Cullen  Bryant  in  Rem- 
iniscences of  the  Evening  Post,  "to  his  sister's  house  in  town;  he  was 
laid  at  the  door;  the  bell  was  rung;  the  family  came  out  and 
fotind  him  bleeding  and  near  his  death.  He  refused  to  name  his 
antagonist,  or  give  any  account  of  the  affair,  declaring  that  every- 
thing which  had  been  done  was  honourably  done,  and  desired  that 
no  attempt  should  be  made  to  seek  out  or  molest  his  adversary." 


CHAPTER   XII 
DEFEAT  OF  BURR  AND  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON 

1804 

The  campaign  for  governor  in  1804  was  destined  to  become 
historic.  Burr  was  driven  from  his  party;  George  Clinton, 
ambitious  to  become  Vice  President,  declined  re-election;^ 
and  the  Federalists,  beaten  into  a  disunited  minority,  re- 
fused to  put  up  a  candidate.  This  apparently  left  the  field 
wide  open  to  John  Lansing,  with  John  Broome  for  lieuten- 
ant-governor. 

For  many  years  the  Lansing  family  had  been  prominent 
in  the  affairs  of  the  State  and  influential  in  the  councils  of 
their  party.  The  Chancellor,  some  years  younger  than  Liv- 
ingston, a  large,  handsome,  modest  man,  was  endowed  with 
a  remarkable  capacity  for  public  life.  The  story  of  his  ca- 
reer is  a  story  of  rugged  manhood  and  a  tragic,  mysterious 
death.  He  rose  by  successive  steps  to  be  mayor  of  Albany, 
member  of  the  Assembly  of  which  he  was  twice  speaker, 
member  of  Congress  under  the  Confederation,  judge  and 
chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  finally  chancellor. 
Indeed,  so  long  as  he  did  the  bidding  of  the  Clintons  he  kept 
rising ;  but  the  independence  that  early  characterised  his  ac- 
tion at  Philadelphia  in  1787  and  at  Poughkeepsie  in  1788 
became  more  and  more  pronounced,  until  it  separated  him 
at  last  from  the  faction  that  had  steadily  given  him  support. 
Perhaps  his  nearest  approach  to  a  splendid  virtue  was  his 

'  "DeWitt  Clinton  was  annoyed  at  his  uncle's  conduct,  and  tried 
to  prevent  the  withdrawal  by  again  calling"  Jefferson  to  his  aid  and 
alarming  him  with  fear  of  Burr.  But  the  President  declined  to 
interfere.  No  real  confidence  ever  existed  between  Jefferson  and 
the  Clintons." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  2, 
pp.  173,  174. 

129 


130  THE  DEFEAT   OF  BUKR  [Chap,  xn, 

stubborn  independence.  Whether  this  characteristic, 
amounting  almost  to  stoical  indifference,  led  to  his  murder 
is  now  a  sealed  secret.  All  that  we  know  of  his  death  is,  that 
he  left  the  hotel,  where  he  lived  in  New  York,  to  mail  a  let- 
ter on  the  steamer  for  Albany,  and  was  never  afterward  seen. 
That  he  was  murdered  comes  from  the  lips  of  Thurlow  Weed, 
who  was  intrusted  with  the  particulars,  but  who  died  with 
the  secret  untold.  Lansing  disappeared  in  1829  and  Weed 
died  in  1882,  yet,  after  the  lapse  of  half  a  century,  the  latter 
did  not  feel  justified  in  disclosing  what  had  come  to  him  as  a 
sort  of  father  confessor,  years  after  the  tragedy.  "While  it 
is  true  that  the  parties  are  beyond  the  reach  of  human  tribu- 
nals and  of  public  opinion,"  he  said,  ''yet  others  immediately 
associated  with  them,  and  sharing  in  the  strong  inducement 
which  prompted  the  crime,  survive,  occupying  high  positions 
and  enjoying  public  confidence.  To  these  persons,  should  my 
proof  be  submitted,  public  attention  would  be  irresistibly 
drawn."^ 

Lansing  had  the  instinct,  equipment,  and  training  for  a 
chancellor.  It  has  been  truly  said  of  him  that  he  seemed  to 
have  no  delights  off  the  bench  except  in  such  things  as  in 
some  way  related  to  the  business  upon  it.  He  had  the  un- 
wearied application  of  Kent,  coupled  with  the  ability  to  mas- 
ter the  most  difficult  details,  and,  although  he  lacked  Liv- 
ingston's culture,  he  was  as  resolute,  and,  perhaps,  as  rest- 
less and  suspicious;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  he  possessed  the 
trained  sagacity,  the  native  shrewdness,  and  the  diplomatic 
zeal  to  have  negotiated  the  Louisiana  treaty.  Lansing  began 
the  study  of  law  in  1774,  and  from  that  moment  was  wedded 
to  its  principles  and  constant  in  his  devotions.  His  myste- 
rious murder  must  have  been  caused  by  an  irresistible  long- 
ing to  trace  things  to  their  source,  bringing  into  his  posses- 
sion knowledge  of  some  missing  link  or  defective  title,  which 
would  throw  a  great  property  away  from  its  owner,  but 
which,  by  his  death,  would  again  be  buried  from  the  ken  of 
men.    This,  of  course,  is  only  surmise;  but  Weed  indicates 

="  Thurlow  Weed  Barnes,    Life  of  Thurlow  Weed,  Vol.  2,  p.  35. 


1804]  A   POWERFUL    MACHINE  131 

that  property  prompted  the  crime,  and  that  the  heirs  of  the 
murderer  profited  by  it.  Lansing  was  in  his  seventy-sixth 
year  when  the  fatal  blow  came,  yet  so  vigorous  that  old  age 
had  not  set  its  seal  upon  him. 

In  1804  Lansing  hesitated  to  exchange  the  highest  place 
on  the  bench,  which  would  continue  until  the  age  limit  set 
him  aside  in  1814,  for  a  political  office  that  would  probably 
end  in  three  years ;  but  he  finally  consented  upon  representa- 
tions that  he  alone  could  unite  his  party.  Scarcely,  how- 
ever, had  his  name  been  announced  before  a  caucus  of  Re- 
publican legislators  named  Aaron  Burr,  with  Oliver  Phelps 
of  Ontario  for  lieutenant-governor — nominations  quickly 
ratified  at  public  meetings  in  New  York  and  Albany.  Among 
Burr's  most  conspicuous  champions  were  Erastus  Root  of 
Delaware,  James  Burt  of  Orange,  Peter  B.  Porter  of  Ontario, 
and  Marinus  Willett  of  New  York. 

If  it  is  surprising  that  these  astute  and  devoted  friends  did 
not  appreciate,  in  some  measure,  at  least,  the  extent  to  which 
popular  esteem  had  been  withdrawn  from  their  favourite, 
it  is  most  astonishing  that  Burr  himself  did  not  recognise 
the  strength  of  the  Clinton-Livingston-Spencer  machine  as  it 
existed  in  1804.  Its  managers  were  skilled  masters  of  the 
political  art,  confident  of  success,  fearless  of  criticism,  un- 
scrupulous in  methods,  and  indefatigable  in  attention  to  de- 
tails. They  controlled  the  Council  of  Appointment,  its  ap- 
pointees controlled  the  Assembly,  and  the  Assembly  elected 
the  Council,  an  endless  chain  of  links,  equally  strong  and 
equally  selfish.  To  make  opposition  the  more  fruitless,  the 
distrust  of  Burr,  hammered  into  the  masses  by  Cheetham's 
pen,  practically  amounted  to  a  forfeiture  of  party  confi- 
dence. One  cannot  conceive  a  more  inopportune  time  for 
Burr  to  have  challenged  a  test  of  strength,  yet  Lansing's 
selection  had  hardly  sounded  in  the  people's  ears  before 
Burr's  ^'Little  Band,"  burning  with  indignation  and  resent- 
ment at  his  treatment,  gathered  about  the  tables  in  the  old 
Tontine  Coffee  House  at  Albany  and  launched  him  as  an  in- 
dependent candidate. 


132  THE   DEFEAT    OE   BUER  [Chap.  xn. 

Rarely  has  a  candidate  for  governor  encountered  greater 
odds;  but  with  Burr,  as  afterward  with  DeWitt  Clinton,  it 
was  now  or  never.  In  one  of  his  dramas  Schiller  mourns 
over  the  man  who  stakes  reputation,  health,  everything  upon 
success — and  no  success  in  the  end.  Even  Robert  Yates,  the 
coalition  candidate  in  1789,  started  with  the  support  of  a 
Federalist  machine  and  the  powerful  backing  of  Hamilton. 
But  in  1801  Burr  found  himself  without  a  party,  without  a 
machine,  and  bitterly  opposed  by  Hamilton. 

When  the  sceptre  passed  from  Federalist  to  Republican 
in  1801,  Hamilton  gave  himself  to  his  profession  with  re- 
newed zeal,  earning  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  a 
reputation  as  a  lawyer  scarcely'  surpassed  by  Daniel  Web- 
ster. ''In  creative  power  Hamilton  was  infinitely  Webster's 
superior,"  says  Chief  Justice  Ambrose  Spencer,  before  whom 
both  had  practised.^  Erastus  Root,  possibly  looking 
through  the  eyes  of  Theodosia,  thought  Burr  not  inferior  to 
Hamilton  as  a  lawyer,  although  other  contemporaries  who 
knew  Burr  at  his  best,  regarded  him  as  an  indefatigable, 
tireless,  adroit  lawyer  rather  than  a  profound  and  learned 
one.  This  put  him  in  a  different  class  from  Hamilton.  As 
well  might  one  compare  Offenbach  with  Mozart  as  Burr  with 
Hamilton. 

Hamilton  journeyed  to  Albany  in  February,  1804,  to  argue 
the  case  of  Harry  Croswell,  so  celebrated  and  historic  be- 
cause of  Hamilton's  argument.  Croswell,  the  editor  of  the 
Balance,  a  Federalist  newspaper  published  at  Hudson,  had 
been  convicted  of  libelling  President  Jefferson.  Chief  Justice 
Lewis,  before  whom  the  case  was  originally  tried,  declined 
to  permit  the  defendant  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  alleged 
libel.  To  this  point,  in  his  argument  for  a  new  trial,  Ham- 
ilton addressed  himself,  contending  that  the  English  doctrine 
was  at  variance  with  common  sense,  common  justice,  and  the 
genius  of  American  institutions.  "I  have  always  considered 
General  Hamilton's  argument  in  this  cause,"  said  his  great 
contemporary.  Chancellor  Kent,  "as  the  greatest  forensic  ef- 
'H.  C.  Lodge,  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  pp.  276-7. 


1804]  DISSOLUTION    OF    THE    UNION  133 

fort  he  ever  made.  He  had  come  prepared  to  discuss  the  points 
of  law  with  a  perfect  mastery  of  the  subject.  He  believed 
that  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  were  essentially 
concerned.  There  was  an  unusual  solemnity  and  earnestness 
on  his  part  in  this  discussion.  He  was  at  times  highly  im- 
passioned and  pathetic.  His  whole  soul  was  enlisted  in  the 
cause,  and  in  contending  for  the  rights  of  the  jury  and  a  free 
press,  he  considered  that  he  was  establishing  the  surest  ref- 
uge against  oppression.  He  never  before  in  my  hearing  made 
any  effort  in  which  he  commanded  higher  reverence  for  his 
principles,  nor  equal  admiration  of  the  power  and  pathos  of 
his  eloquence.''*  Such  a  profound  impression  did  his  argu- 
ment make,  that,  although  the  Court  declined  to  depart  from 
the  settled  rule  of  the  common  law,  the  Legislature  subse- 
quently passed  a  statute  authorising  the  truth  to  be  given  in 
evidence,  and  the  jury  to  be  the  judges  of  the  law  as  well  as 
of  the  facts  in  libel  cases. 

It  was  during  the  argument  of  this  case  at  Albany  that 
Hamilton,  joining  his  Federalist  friends  at  Lewis'  Tavern, 
gave  his  reasons  for  preferring  Chancellor  Lansing  to  Aaron 
Burr  for  governor.  There  was  something  new  in  these  rea- 
sons. In  1801  he  preferred  Jefferson  to  Burr  because  the  lat- 
ter, as  he  wrote  Gouverneur  Morris,  "has  no  principles,  pub- 
lic or  private;  could  be  bound  by  no  argument;  will  listen  to 
no  monitor  but  his  ambition ;  and  for  this  purpose  will  use 
the  worst  portion  of  the  community  as  a  ladder  to  climb  to 
permanent  power,  and  an  instrument  to  crush  the  better  part. 
He  is  sanguine  enough  to  hope  everything^  daring  enough  to 
attempt  everything,  wicked  enough  to  scruple  nothing."^ 

Nothing  had  occurred  in  the  intervening  years  to  change 
this  opinion,  but  much  was  now  happening  to  strengthen  it. 
A  Federalist  faction  in  New  England,  led  by  Pickering  in  the 
United  States  Senate  and  Roger  Griswold  in  the  House, 
thought  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  inevitable  to  save  Federal- 
ism, and  for  months  the  project  had  been  discussed  in  a 

*  H.  C.  Lodge,  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  pp.  240-1. 
'^Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  570. 


134  THE   DEFEAT    OF   BUEE  [Chap.  xn. 

stifled,  mysterious  manner.  "It  (separation)  must  begin  in 
Massachusetts,"  wrote  Pickering  to  George  Cabot,  "but  New 
York  must  be  the  centre  of  the  confederacy."^  To  Rufus 
King,  Pickering  became  more  specific.  "The  Federalists  have 
in  general  anxiously  desired  the  election  of  Burr — and  if  a 
separation  should  be  deemed  proper,  the  five  New  England 
States,  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  would  naturally  be 
united."^  But  King  disapproved  disunion.  "Colonel  Picker- 
ing has  been  talking  to  me  about  a  project  they  have  for  a 
separation  of  the  States  and  a  northern  confederacy,"  he 
said  to  Adams  of  Massachusetts ;  "and  he  has  also  been  this 
day  talking  with  General  Hamilton.  I  disapprove  entirely 
of  the  project,  and  so,  I  am  happy  to  tell  you,  does  General 
Hamilton."*  But  the  conspirators  were  not  to  be  quieted 
by  disapproving  words.  Griswold,  in  a  letter  to  Oliver  Wol- 
cott,  declared  Burr's  election  and  consequent  leadership  of 
the  Federalist  party  "the  only  hope  which  at  this  time  pre- 
sents itself  of  rallying  in  defence  of  the  Northern  States,"® 
and  in  order  not  to  remain  longer  inactive,  he  entered  into 
a  bargain  with  Burr,  of  which  he  wrote  Wolcott  fully.  Wol- 
C'Ott  sent  the  letter  to  Hamilton. ^° 

It  was  plain  to  Hamilton  that  these  timid  conspirators 
wanted  a  bold  chief  to  lead  them  into  secession,  and  that 
since  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them,  they  had  in- 
voked the  aid  of  Aaron  Burr.  Thus,  to  his  former  desire  to 
defeat  Burr,  was  now  added  a  determination  to  defeat  incipi- 
ent disunion,  and  in  the  Lewis  Tavern  conference  he  argued 
that  Burr,  a  Democrat  either  from  principle  or  calculation, 

'January  29,  1804;  Lodge's   Cabot,  p.   337.  ''Ibid.,  p.  447. 

^Neic  England  Federalism,  p.  148. 

'  Eamilton^s  History,  Vol.  7,  p.  781;  New  England  Federalism,  p.  354. 

"  Henry  Adams,  History  of  tJie  United  States,  Vol.  2,  p.  180. 
"Pickering-  and  Griswold  could  win  their  g-ame  only  by  bartering- 
their  souls;  they  must  invoke  the  Mephistopheles  of  politics,  Aaron 
Burr.  To  this  they  had  made  up  their  minds  from  the  beginning. 
Burr's  four  years  of  office  were  drawing  to  a  close.  He  had  not  a 
chance  of  regaining  a  commanding  place  among  Republicans,  for 
lie  was  bankrupt  in  private  and  public  character." — Ibid.,  p.  171. 


1804]  BUER   FAVOURS  DISUNION  135 

would  remain  a  Democrat;  and  that,  though  detested  by 
leading  Clintonians,  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  a  man  of 
his  talents,  intrigue  and  address,  possessing  the  chair  of 
government,  to  rally  under  his  standard  the  great  body  of 
the  party,  and  such  Federalists  as,  from  personal  goodwill 
or  interested  motives,  may  give  him  support.  The  effect  of 
his  elevation,  with  the  help  of  Federalists  would,  therefore, 
be  to  reunite,  under  a  more  adroit,  able  and  daring  chief,  not 
only  the  now  scattered  fragments  of  his  own  party,  but  to 
present  to  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Federalist  New  Eng- 
land the  grandson  of  President  Edwards,  for  whom  they 
had  already  a  strong  predilection.  Thus  he  would  have  fair 
play  to  disorganise  the  party  of  Jefferson,  now  held  in  light 
esteem,  and  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  a  northern  party 
favouring  disunion. 

"If  he  be  truly,  as  the  Federalists  have  believed,  a  man  of 
irregular  and  insatiable  ambition,"  continued  Hamilton,  "he 
will  endeavour  to  rise  to  power  on  the  ladder  of  Jacobin  prin- 
ciples, not  leaning  on  a  fallen  party,  unfavourable  to  usurpa- 
tion and  the  ascendancy  of  a  despotic  chief,  but  rather  on 
popular  prejudices. and  vices,  ever  ready  to  desert  a  govern- 
ment by  the  people  at  a  moment  when  he  ought,  more  than 
ever,  to  adhere  to  it.  On  the  other  hand,  Lansing's  personal 
character  affords  some  security  against  pernicious  extremes, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  renders  it  certain  that  his  party,  al- 
ready much  divided  and  weakened,  will  distintegrate  more 
and  more,  until  in  a  recasting  of  parties  the  Federalists  may 
gain  a  great  accession  of  force.  At  any  rate  it  is  wiser  to 
foster  schism  among  Democrats,  than  to  give  them  a  chief, 
better  able  than  any  they  have  yet  had,  to  unite  and  direct 
them."ii 

"  Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  7,  p.  325.  "The  stnig-g-le  for  com- 
trol  between  Hamilton  and  the  conspirators  lasted  to  the  eve  of  the 
election, — secret,  stifled,  mysterious;  the  intrigue  of  men  afraid  to 
avow  their  aims,  and  seeming  rather  driven  by  their  own  passions 
than  gnided  by  lofty  and  unselfish  motives." — Her  ry  Adams,  His- 
tory of  the  United  States,  Vol.  2,  p.  184. 


136  THE  DEFEAT   OF  BUKK  [Cuap.  xii. 

Within  a  week  after  the  Lewis  Tavern  conference  Burr's 
chances  brightened  by  the  sudden  withdrawal  of  Lansing,  be- 
cause the  latter  would  not  allow  the  Clintons  to  dictate  his 
appointments.  This  was  a  great  surprise  to  Kepublicans  and 
a  great  grief  to  Hamilton — the  more  so  since  it  was  not  easy 
to  find  an  available  successor.  The  mention  of  DeWitt  Clin- 
ton raised  the  cry  of  youth;  Ambrose  Spencer  had  too  re- 
cently come  over  from  the  Federalists ;  Morgan  Lewis  lacked 
capacity  and  fitness.  Thus  the  contention  continued,  but 
with  a  leaning  more  and  more  toward  Morgan  Lewis,  a 
brother-in-law  of  Chancellor  and  Edward  Livingston. 

Lewis'  youth  had  promised  a  brilliant  future.  He  grad- 
uated with  high  honours  at  Princeton,  and  when  the  guns  of 
Bunker  Hill  waked  the  country  he  promptly  exchanged  John 
Jay's  law  office  for  John  Jay's  regiment.  In  the  latter's  ab- 
sence he  retained  command  as  major  until  ordered  to  the 
northern  frontier,  when  he  suddenly  dropped  into  a  place  as 
assistant  quartermaster-general,  useful  and  important 
enough,  but  stripped  of  the  glory  usually  preferred  by  the 
hot  blood  of  a  gallant  youth.  In  time,  the  faithful,  efficient 
quartermaster  became  a  plodding,  painstaking  lawyer,  a 
safe,  industrious  attorney-general,  and  a  dignified,  respect- 
able judge ;  but  he  had  not  distinguished  himself,  nor  did  he 
possess  the  striking,  showy  characteristics  of  mind  or  man- 
ner often  needed  in  a  doubtful  and  bitterly  contested  cam- 
paign. Heretofore  place  had  sought  him  by  appointment. 
He  became  attorney-general  when  Aaron  Burr  gave  it  up  for 
the  United  States  Senate;  and  a  year  later,  by  the  casting 
vote  of  Governor  Clinton,  the  Council  made  him  a  Supreme 
Court  judge.  In  1801  the  chief-justiceship  dropped  into  his 
lap  when  Livingston  went  to  France  and  Lansing  became 
chancellor,  just  as  the  chancellorship  would  probably  have 
come  to  him  had  Lansing  continued  a  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor.   In  180.3  he  wanted  to  be  mayor  of  New  York. 

But  with  all  his  ordinariness  no  one  else  in  sight  seemed 
so  available  a  candidate  for  governor.  The  Livingstons,  al- 
ready jealous  of    DeWitt  Clinton's  growing    influence,  se- 


i 


1804]  MOEGAN   LEWIS  137 

cretl}'  nourished  the  hope  that  Lewis  might  develop  sufficient 
independence  to  check  the  young  man's  ambition.  On  the 
other  hand,  DeWitt  Clinton,  equally  jealous  of  the  power 
wielded  by  the  Livingstons,  thought  the  Chief  Justice,  a 
kind,  amiable  man  of  sixty,  without  any  particular  force  of 
character,  sufficiently  plastic  to  mould  to  his  liking.  "From 
the  moment  Clinton  declined,"  wrote  Hamilton  to  Rufus 
King,  "I  began  to  consider  Burr  as  having  a  chance  of  suc- 
cess. It  was  still  my  reliance,  however,  that  Lansing  would 
outrun  him ;  but  now  that  Chief  Justice  Lewis  is  his  competi- 
tor, the  probabilit}',  in  my  judgment,  inclines  to  Burr."^^ 

Burr's  friends,  knowing  his  phenomenal  shrewdness  in 
cloaking  bargains  and  intrigues  until  the  game  was  bagged, 
now  relied  upon  him  with  confidence  to  bring  victory  out 
of  the  known  discord  and  jealousy  of  his  opponents,  and  for 
a  time  it  looked  as  if  he  might  succeed.  Lansing's  with- 
drawal and  Hamilton's  failure  to  put  up  Rufus  King  as  he 
contemplated,  gave  Burr  the  support  of  Lansing's  sympathy 
and  a  clear  field  among  Federalists,  except  as  modified  by 
Hamilton's  influence.  In  addition,  his  friends  cited  his 
ability  and  Revolutionary  services,  his  liberal  patronage  of 
science  and  the  arts,  his  distinguished  and  saintly  ancestry, 
his  freedom  from  family  connections  to  quarter  upon  the  pub- 
lic treasury,  and  his  honest  endeavour  to  free  himself  from 
debt  by  disposing  of  his  estate.  Especially  in  New  York  City 
did  he  meet  with  encouragement.  His  headquarters  in  John 
Street  overflowed  with  ward  workers  and  ward  heelers,  eager 
to  elect  the  man  upon  whom  they  could  rely  for  favours  and 
with  whom  they  doubtless  sincerely  sympathised.  It  was  the 
contest  of  April,  1800,  over  again,  save  that  Hamilton  did 
not  speak  or  openly  oppose. 

As  the  fight  continued  it  increased  in  bitterness.  Cheet- 
ham  pounded  Burr  harder  than  ever,  accusing  him  of  seduc- 
tion and  of  dancing  with  a  buxom  wench  at  a  '*nigger  ball" 
given  by  one  of  his  coloured  servants  at  Richmond  Hill.  Jef- 
ferson was  quoted  as  saying  that  Burr's  party  was  not  the 
^-HamiUon's  Works   (Lodge),  Vol.  8.  p.  608. 


138  THE   DEFEAT    OF   BUKK  [Chap.  xii. 

real  democracy,  a  statement  that  the  American  Citizen 
printed  in  cajjitals  and  kept  standing  during  the  three  days 
of  the  election.  With  great  earnestness  Hamilton  quietly 
warned  the  Federalists  not  to  elevate  a  man  who  would  use 
their  party  only  to  strengthen  their  opponents.  In  the  up- 
counties.  where  the  influence  of  the  Clinton-Livingston-Spen- 
cer combine  held  the  party  together  with  cords  of  steel,  every 
appointee,  from  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  justice  of  the 
peace,  was  ranged  on  the  side  of  Livingston's  brother-in-law. 

But  Burr,  too,  had  powerful  abettors.  In  Orange  and 
Dutchess  he  had  always  been  a  favourite;  in  Delaware,  Eras- 
tus  Root  gave  all  his  influence  and  all  his  gifts  with  the  de- 
votion that  animated  John  Swartout  and  Marinus  Willett 
in  New  York ;  in  Ontario,  Oliver  Phelps,  the  great  land  spec- 
ulator, endowed  with  an  unconquerable  energy  and  the  strat- 
egy of  a  tactician,  was  backed  by  Peter  B.  Porter,  the  young 
and  exceedingly  popular  clerk  of  that  county,  soon  to  be  dis- 
missed for  his  independence;  in  Albany,  John  Yan  Ness 
Y''ates,  remembering  Burr's  support  of  his  father's  candi- 
dacy in  1789,  also  came  to  his  assistance.  Zealous  and  active, 
however,  as  these  and  other  friends  were,  they  were  few  and 
weak  compared  to  the  army  of  office-holders  shouting  and 
working  for  Morgan  Lewis.  When  the  returns,  therefore, 
were  in,  although  Burr  carried  New  York  by  one  hundred, 
he  lost  the  State  by  over  eight  thousand.^^  A  comparison  of 
the  vote  with  the  senatorial  returns  of  1803  showed  that  for 
every  Republican  voting  for  Burr,  a  Federalist,  influenced 
by  Hamilton,  voted  for  Lewis. 

It  was  Burr's  Waterloo.  He  had  staked  everything  and 
lost.  Bankrupt  in  purse,  disowned  by  his  party,  and  dis- 
trusted by  a  large  faction  of  the  leading  Federalists,  he  was 
without  hope  of  recovery  so  long  as  Hamilton  blocked  the 
way.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Burr  ever  saw  Hamilton's 
confidential  letters  to  Morris  and  other  trusted  Federal  lead- 
ers, or  knew  their  contents,  but  he  did  know  that  Hamilton 

"Morgan  Lewis,  30,829;  Aaron  Burr,  22,139.  — Civil  List,  State  of 
New  York    (1887),  p.  166. 


1801]  PKELIMINARY   TO    THE   DUEL  139 

bitterly  opposed  him,  and  that  his  influence  was  blighting. 
To  get  rid  of  him,  therefore,  liurr  now  seems  to  have  deliber- 
ately determined  to  kill  him,^* 

While  in  Albany  in  February  to  argue  the  Croswell  case, 
Hamilton  had  dined  with  John  Taylor,  in  company  with  Dr. 
Charles  D.  Cooper,  who  wrote  a  friend  that,  in  the  course 
of  the  dinner,  Hamilton  had  declared,  in  substance,  that  he 
looked  upon  Burr  as  a  dangerous  man — one  who  ought  not 
to  be  trusted  with  the  reins  of  government.  "I  could  detail 
to  you,"  continued  Cooper,  "a  still  more  despicable  opinion 
which  General  Hamilton  has  expressed  of  Mr.  Burr."  This 
letter  found  its  way  into  the  newspapers,  and  in  a  note, 
dated  June  18,  1804,  Burr  called  Hamilton's  attention  to  the 
words  ''more  despicable,"  and  added:  *'You  must  perceive, 
sir,  the  necessity  of  a  prompt  and  unqualified  acknowledg- 
ment or  denial  of  the  use  of  the  expression  which  could  war- 
rant the  assertions  of  Dr.  Cooper."^^  This  note,  purposely  of- 
fensive in  its  tone,  was  delivered  by  William  P.  Van  Ness, 
a  circumstance  clearly  indicating  an  intention  to  follow  it 
with  a  challenge.  Two  days  later,  Hamilton  replied,  declin- 
ing to  make  the  acknowledgment  or  denial,  since  he  could  at- 
tach no  meaning  to  the  words  used  in  the  letter,  nor  could  he 
consent  to  be  interrogated  as  to  the  inferences  drawn  by 

"  "That  all  Hamilton's  doings  were  known  to  Burr  could  hardly 
be  doubted.  He  was  not  a  vindictive  man,  but  this  was  the  second 
time  Hamilton  had  stood  in  his  way  and  vilified  his  character. 
Burr  could  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Hamilton  was  deeply 
loved;  for  he  knew  that  four-fifths  of  the  Federal  party  had 
adopted  his  own  leadership  when  pitted  against  Hamilton's  in  the 
late  election,  and  he  knew,  too,  that  Pickering-,  Griswold,  and  other 
leading  Federalists  had  separated  from  Hamilton  in  the  hope  of 
making  Burr  himself  the  chief  of  a  Northern  confederacy.  Burr 
never  cared  for  the  past, — the  present  and  future  were  his  only 
thoughts;  but  his  future  in  politics  depended  on  his  breaking  some- 
where through  the  line  of  his  personal  enemies;  and  Hamilton  stood 
first  in  his  path,  for  Hamilton  would  certainly  renew  at  every 
critical  moment  the  tactics  which  had  twice  cost  Burr  his  prize," — 
Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  "Vol.  2,  pp.  185,  186. 

^'^ Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  617. 


140  THE  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON  [Chap.  xn. 

third  parties,  but  he  was  ready  to  avow  or  disavow  any  defi- 
nite opinion  with  which  he  might  be  charged.  "I  trust  on 
further  reflection,"  concluded  Hamilton,  "you  will  see  the 
matter  in  the  same  light  with  me.  If  not,  I  can  only  regret 
the  circumstances  and  must  abide  the  consequences."^® 

Burr's  answer,  which  plainly  shows  the  rhetoric  of  "Aris- 
tides,"  was  more  offensive  than  his  initial  letter.  After  re- 
plying to  it,  Hamilton  prepared  a  note  to  be  informally  com- 
municated to  Burr,  in  which  he  stated  that  if  the  latter  chose 
to  inquire  into  the  purport  of  any  conversation  between  him- 
self and  Dr.  Cooper,  he  would  be  able  to  reply  with  truth 
that  it  turned  wholly  on  political  topics,  and  had  no  relation 
to  Burr's  private  character,  adding  that  he  was  ready  to 
make  an  equally  frank  answer  with  regard  to  any  other  con- 
versation which  Burr  would  specify.^^  When  Burr  pro- 
nounced this  honourable  proposition  "a  mere  evasion,"  his 
purpose  was  as  evident  as  it  became  on  June  27th,  the  day 
he  sent  the  challenge. 

Hamilton's  acceptance  of  the  challenge  was  inevitable.  For 
a  hundred  years  men  have  regretted  and  mourned  that  he  did 
not  dare  to  stand  alone  against  duelling,  as  he  had  dared  to 
stand  alone  for  economic  and  patriotic  principles  against 
the  clamour  of  mobs  and  the  malice  of  enemies.  But  absurd 
and  barbarous  as  was  the  custom,  it  flourished  in  Christian 
America,  as  it  did  in  every  other  Christian  country,  in  spite 
of  Christian  ethics;  and  it  would  not  permit  a  proud,  sensi- 
tive nature,  jealous  of  his  honour,  especially  of  his  military 
honour,  to  ignore  it.  Lorenzo  Sabine's  list  of  duellists  includes 
a  score  of  prominent  Englishmen,  Frenchmen  and  Amer- 
icans, many  of  them  contem.porary  with  Hamilton,  and  some 
of  them  as  profoundly  admired,  who  succumbed  to  its  tyr- 
anny. Proof  of  his  valour  at  Monmouth  and  at  Yorktown 
would  no  more  placate  the  popxilar  contempt  and  obloquy 
sure  to  follow  an  avoidance  of  its  demands  than  would  the 
victory  at  Waterloo  have  excused  Wellington  had  he  de- 
clined to  challenge  Lord  Winchilsea.    All  this  did  not  make 

^"Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  618.  "Ibid.,  p.  621. 


i 


1804]  AN   IMPERIOUS    CUSTOM  141 

duelling  right,  but  it  excuses  a  noble  soul  for  yielding  "to  the 
force  of  an  imperious  custom,"  as  Dr.  Knott  put  it — a  custom 
that  still  exists  in  France  and  Germany,  and  in  some  parts 
of  America,  perhaps,  though  now  universally  execrated  by 
Christian  people  and  pronounced  murder  by  their  laws. 
Even  at  that  time  Hamilton  held  it  in  abhorrence.  In  a  paper 
drawn  for  publication  in  the  event  of  death,  he  announced 
his  intention  of  throwing  away  his  fire,  and  in  extenuation 
of  yielding,  he  adds :  "To  those  who,  with  me,  abhorring  the 
practice  of  duelling,  may  think  that  I  ought  on  no  account 
to  have  added  to  the  number  of  bad  examples,  I  answer  that 
my  relative  situation,  as  well  in  public  as  in  private,  enforc- 
ing all  the  considerations  which  constitute  what  men  of  the 
world  denominate  honour,  imposed  on  me,  as  I  thought,  a  pe- 
culiar necessity  not  to  decline  the  call.  The  ability  to  be  in 
the  future  useful,  whether  in  resisting  mischief,  or  effecting 
good,  in  those  crises  of  our  public  affnirs  which  seem  likely 
to  happen,  would  probably  be  inseparable  from  a  conformity 
with  public  prejudice  in  this  particular."^*  The  pathway  of 
history  is  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  customs  and  supersti- 
tions which  have  held  men  in  their  grip,  compelling  obedience 
and  demanding  regularity ;  but  no  custom  ever  had  a  firmer 
hold  upon  gifted  men  than  duelling,  making  them  its  devo- 
tees even  when  their  intellects  condemned  it,  their  hearts 
recognised  its  cruelty,  and  their  consciences  pronounced  it 
wrong. 

Because  of  Hamilton's  engagements  in  court,  the  hostile 
meeting  was  deferred  until  Wednesday,  July  11th,  In  the 
meantime  the  principals  went  about  their  vocations  with  ap- 
parent indifference  to  the  coming  event.  On  the  evening  of 
July  4th,  Hamilton  and  Burr  attended  the  annual  dinner  of 
the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  of  which  the  former  had  suc- 
ceeded Washington  as  president.  The  occasion  was  remem- 
bered as  the  gayest  and  most  hilarious  in  the  society's  his- 
tory. Hamilton  leaped  upon  the  table  and  sang  "The  Drum," 
an  old  camp  song  that  became  historic  because  of  his  fre- 
^^  Hamilton's  TForfcs  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  pp.  626-8. 


142  THE  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON  [Chap.  xii. 

quent  rendition  of  it.  It  was  recalled  afterward  that  Burr 
withdrew  before  the  festivities  had  ended.  On  Saturday 
evening  Hamilton  dined  Colonel  Trumbull,  one  of  Washing- 
ton's first  aides,  and  on  Monday  attended  a  reception  given 
by  Oliver  Wolcott,  John  Adams'  secretary  of  the  treasury. 
Tuesday  evening  he  prepared  the  paper  already  quoted,  and 
addressed  a  letter  to  Theodore  Sedgwick,  one  of  Pickering's 
sternest  conspirators,  warning  him  against  disunion.  ''Dis- 
memberment of  our  empire,"  he  said,  "will  be  a  clear  sacri- 
fice of  great  positive  advantages,  without  any  counterbal- 
ancing good ;  administering  no  relief  to  our  real  disease, 
which  is  democracy — the  poison  of  which,  by  a  subdivision, 
will  only  be  the  more  concentred  in  each  part,  and  conse- 
quently the  more  virulent."^^ 

Meantime  the  secret  had  been  confined  to  less  than  a  dozen 
persons,  and  to  none  of  Hamilton's  intimate  friends.  Troup 
remained  with  him  until  a  late  hour  Monday  night  without 
suspecting  anything,  the  gaiety  of  his  manner  leading  his 
friend  to  think  his  health  was  mending.  Had  Troup  divined 
the  hostile  meeting,  it  might  not  have  occurred.  When  John 
Swartout  entered  Burr's  room  at  daylight  on  that  fatal  11th 
of  July,  he  found  him  sound  asleep. 

It  was  seven  o'clock  Wednesday  morning,  a  hot  July  day, 
that  Hamilton  crossed  the  Hudson  to  Weehawken,  with  Pen- 
dleton, his  second,  and  Dr.  Hosack,  Burr  and  Van  Ness  hav- 
ing preceded  them.  It  took  but  a  moment  to  measure  ten 
paces,  load  the  pistols,  and  place  the  principals  in  position. 
As  the  word  was  given.  Burr  took  deliberate  aim  and  fired. 
Instantly  Hamilton  reeled  and  fell  forward  headlong  upon 
his  face,  involuntarily  discharging  his  pistol.  ''This  is  a 
mortal  wound,  Doctor,"  he  gasped,  and  immediately  sank 
into  a  swoon.  An  examination  showed  that  the  ball  had 
penetrated  the  right  side.  Burr,  sheltered  by  Van  Ness  under 
an  umbrella,  hurried  from  the  scene,  while  Hamilton,  con- 
veyed in  his  boat  to  the  city,  gradually  recovered  conscious- 
ness. "My  vision  is  indistinct,"  he  murmured ;  but  soon  after, 
^^  Hamilton's  Works  (Lodge),  Vol.  8,  p.  615.  Letter  to  Theo.  Sedg- 
wick. 


t 


1804]  MOUKNED  BY  A  NATION  143 

catching  sight  of  a  pistol  near  him,  cautioned  them  to  take 
care  of  it.  "It  is  undischarged  and  still  cocked,"  he  said; 
*'it  may  go  off  and  do  harm.  Pendleton  knows  I  did  not  in- 
tend to  fire  at  him."  As  the  boat  neared  the  wharf,  he  asked 
that  Mrs.  Hamilton  be  sent  for.  "Let  the  event  be  gi-adually 
broken  to  her,"  he  said,  "but  give  her  hopes."  Thus  he  lin- 
gered for  thirty-one  hours  in  great  agony,  but  retaining  his 
self-command  to  the  last,  and  dying  in  the  midst  of  his 
stricken  family  and  sorrowing  friends. 

If  Washington  and  Lincoln  be  excepted,  it  is  doubtful  if 
an  American  was  ever  more  deeply  mourned.  Had  he  been 
President,  he  could  not  have  been  buried  with  greater  pomp, 
or  with  manifestations  of  more  profound  sorrow.  Although 
he  had  been  hated  by  his  enemies,  and  at  times  misunder- 
stood by  some  of  his  friends,  at  his  death  the  people,  without 
division,  instantly  recognised  that  his  life  had  been  passion- 
ately devoted  to  his  country,  and  they  paid  him  the  tribute 
only  accorded  the  memory  of  a  most  illustrious  patriot.  Such 
demonstrations  were  not  confined  to  Nev/  York.  The  sorrow 
became  national;  speeches,  sermons,  and  poems  without 
number,  were  composed  in  his  honour ;  in  every  State,  some 
county  or  town  received  his  name;  wherever  an  American 
lived,  an  expression  of  sympathy  found  record.  It  w^as  the 
consensus  of  opinion  that  the  life  which  began  in  January, 
1757  and  ended  in  July,  1804,  held  in  the  compass  of  its  forty 
seven  years  the  epitome  of  what  America  meant  for  Ameri- 
cans in  the  days  of  its  greatest  peril  and  its  greatest  glory. 
"Had  he  lived  twenty  years  longer,"  said  Chancellor  Kent, 
"I  have  very  little  doubt  he  would  have  rivalled  Socrates  or 
Bacon,  or  any  other  of  the  sages  of  ancient  or  modern  times, 
in  researches  after  truth  and  in  benevolence  to  mankind. 
The  active  and  profound  statesman,  the  learned  and  eloquent 
lawyer,  would  probably  have  disappeared  in  a  great  degree 
before  the  character  of  the  sage  and  philosopher,  instructing 
mankind  by  his  wisdom,  and  elevating  the  country  by  his 
example."^" 

'"William  Kent,  Life  of  James  Kent,  appendix,  p.  328. 


144  THE  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON  [Chap.  xii. 

Burr  became  a  name  of  horror.^^  When  Hamilton's  death 
was  announced  there  came  a  cry  of  execration  on  his  mur- 
derer, which  the  publication  of  the  correspondence  intensi- 
fied. A  coroner's  jury  pronounced  him  a  murderer,  the  grand 
jury  instructed  the  district  attorney  to  prosecute,  and  the 
Vice  President  found  it  necessary  to  take  refuge  in  conceal- 
ment until  the  first  fury  of  the  people  had  subsided.  Cheet- 
ham's  pen,  following  him  remorselessly,  charged  that  he  ran- 
sacked the  newspapers  for  the  grounds  of  a  challenge ;  that 
for  three  months  he  daily  practised  with  a  pistol ;  and  that 
while  Hamilton  lay  dying,  he  sat  at  the  table  drinking  wine 
"with  his  friends,  and  apologising  that  he  had  not  shot  him 
through  the  heart. 

Within  two  years  Burr  was  arrested  for  treason,  charged 
with  an  attempt  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  a  new  na- 
tion formed  from  the  country  of  the  Montezumas  and  the 
yalley  of  the  Mississippi,  and,  although  he  was  acquitted,  his 
countrymen  believed  him  guilty  of  a  treasonable  ambition. 
In  the  State  where  he  had  found  his  chief  support,  he  ever 
after  ranked  in  infamy  next  to  Benedict  Arnold.  Thence- 
forth he  became  a  stranger  and  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  His  friends  left  him  and  society  shunned  him.  "I 
have  not  spoken  to  the  damned  reptile  for  twenty-five  years," 
said  former  Governor  Morgan  Lewis,  in  1830.^^ 

For  the  moment,  one  forgets  the  horrible  tragedy  of 
July  11,  1804,  and  thinks  only  of  the  lonely  man  who  lived 
to  lament  it.  He  was  in  his  eighty-first  year  when  he  died. 
On  his  return  from  Europe  in  1812,  only  one  person  wel- 
comed him.  This  was  Matthew  L.  Davis,  his  earliest  political 
friend  and  biographer.  Burr  made  Davis  his  literary  execu- 
tor, and  turned  over  to  him  the  confidential  female  corre- 
spondence that  had  accumulated  in  the  days  of  his  popular- 
ity as  United  States  senator  and  Vice  President,  and  that 

"  "Orators,  ministers,  and  newspapers  exhausted  themselves  in 
execration  of  Burr." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  StateSf 
Vol.  2,  p.  190. 

"Autobiography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  370. 


1S04]  AN  UNNATURAL  PARENT  145 

lie  had  carefully  filed  and  indorsed  with  the  full  name  of  each 
writer.  The  treachery,  falsehood,  and  desertion  with  which 
these  letters  charged  him,  seemed  to  this  unnatural  man  to 
add  to  their  value,  and  he  gave  them  to  his  executor  without 
instructions,  that  the  extent  of  his  gallantries,  his  power  of 
fascination,  and  the  names  of  the  gifted  and  beautiful  vic- 
tims of  his  numerous  amours  might  not  become  a  secret  in 
his  grave.  One  can  conceive  nothing  baser.  The  preserva- 
tion of  letters  to  satisfy  an  erotic  mind  is  low  enough,  but 
deliberately  to  identify  each  anonymous  or  initialled  letter 
with  the  full  name  of  the  writer,  for  the  use  of  a  biographer, 
is  an  act  of  treachery  of  which  few  men  are  capable.  To  the 
credit  of  Davis,  these  letters  were  either  returned  to  their 
writers  or  consigned  to  the  flames. 

Burr  was  a  politician  by  nature,  habit  and  education.  In 
his  younger  days  he  easily  enlisted  the  goodwill  and  sym- 
pathy of  his  associates,  surrounding  himself  with  a  large 
circle  of  devoted,  obedient  friends;  and,  though  neither  a 
great  lawyer  nor  a  brilliant  speaker,  his  natural  gifts,  sup- 
plemented by  industry  and  perseverance,  and  a  very  attrac- 
tive presence,  made  him  a  conspicuous  member  of  the  New 
York  bar  and  of  the  United  States  Senate.  He  was,  how- 
ever, the  ardent  champion  of  nothing  that  made  for  the  pub- 
lic good.  Indeed,  the  record  of  liis  whole  life  indicates  that 
he  never  possessed  a  great  thought,  or  fathered  an  impor- 
tant measure.  Throughout  the  long,  and,  at  times,  bitter  con- 
troversy over  the  establishment  of  the  Union,  his  silence  was 
broken  only  to  predict  its  failure  within  half  a  century. 

It  is  doubtful  if  he  was  ever  a  happy  man.  In  the  very 
hours  when  he  was  the  most  famous  and  the  most  flattered, 
he  described  himself  as  most  unliappy.  So  long,  though,  as 
Theodosia  lived,  he  was  never  alone.  When  she  died,  he  suf- 
fered till  the  end.  There  has  hardly  ever  been  in  the  world 
a  more  famous  pair  of  lovers  than  Burr  and  his  gifted,  noble 
daughter,  and  there  is  nothing  in  history  more  profoundly 
melancholy  than  the  loss  of  the  ship,  driven  by  the  pitiless 
wind  of  fate,  on  which  Theodosia  had  taken  passage  for  her 


146  THE  DEATH  OF  HAMILTON  [Chap.  xii. 

southern  home.  Yet  one  is  shocked  at  the  unnatural  parent 
who  instructs  his  daughter  to  read,  in  the  event  of  his  death 
in  the  duel  with  Hamilton,  the  confidential  letters  which 
came  to  him  in  the  course  of  his  love  intrigues  and  affairs 
of  gallantry.  It  imports  a  moral  obliquity  that,  happily  for 
society,  is  found  in  few  human  beings.  As  he  lived,  so  he 
died,  a  strange,  lonely,  unhappy  man,  out  of  tune  with  the 
beautiful  world  in  which  he  was  permitted  to  exist  upward 
of  four  score  years.  He  had  done  a  great  deal  of  harm,  and, 
except  as  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  no  good  whatever. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  CLINTONS  AGAINST  THE  LIVINGSTONS 

1804-1807 

When  Morgan  Lewis  began  his  term  as  governor  tranquil- 
lity characterised  public  affairs  in  the  State  and  in  the  na- 
tion. The  Louisiana  Purchase  had  strengthened  the  Admin- 
istration with  all  classes  of  people;  Jefferson  and  George 
Clinton  had  received  162  electoral  votes  to  14  for  Pinckney 
and  Rufus  King;  Burr  had  gone  into  retirement  and  was 
soon  to  go  into  obscurity;  the  liivingstons,  filling  high  places, 
were  distinguishing  themselves  at  home  and  abroad  as  able 
judges  and  successful  diplomatists ;  DeWitt  Clinton,  happy 
and  eminently  efficient  as  the  mayor  of  New  York,  seemed 
to  have  before  him  a  bright  and  prosperous  career  as  a  skil- 
ful and  triumphant  party  manager;  while  George  Clinton, 
softened  by  age,  rich  in  favouring  friends,  with  an  ideal  face 
for  a  strong,  bold  portrait,  was  basking  in  the  soft,  mellow 
glow  that  precedes  the  closing  of  a  stormy  life.  Never  be- 
fore, perhaps  never  since,  did  a  governor  enter  upon  his 
duties,  neither  unusual  nor  important,  under  more  favour- 
able auspices;  j^et  the  story  of  Lewis'  administration  is  a 
story  of  astonishing  mistakes  and  fatal  factional  strife. 

The  Governor  inaugurated  his  new  career  by  an  unhappy 
act  of  patronage.  The  appointment  of  Maturin  Livingston, 
his  son-in-law,  and  the  removal  of  Peter  B.  Porter,  the  friend 
of  Burr,  showed  a  selfish,  almost  malevolent  disregard  of 
public  opinion  and  the  public  service,  a  trait  that,  in  a  way, 
characterised  his  policy  throughout.  Livingston  was  noto- 
riously unfitted  for  recorder  of  New  York.  He  was  unpop- 
ular in  his  manners,  deficient  in  a  knowledge  of  law,  without 

147 


148  CLINTONS  AGAINST  LIVINGSTONS     [Chap.  xni. 

industry,  and  given  to  pleasure  rather  than  business,  but,  be- 
cause of  his  relationship,  the  Governor  forced  him  into  that 
responsible  position.  In  like  manner,  although  until  then  no 
change  had  occurred  within  the  party  for  opinion's  sake, 
Lewis  voted  for  the  removal  of  Peter  B.  Porter,  the  young  and 
popular  clerk  of  Ontario  County.  Porter's  youth  indicated 
an  intelligence  that  promised  large  returns  to  his  country 
and  his  party,  and  the  Governor  lived  long  enough  to  see  him 
honourably  distinguished  in  Congress,  highly  renowned  when 
his  serious  career  began  on  the  Niagara  frontier  in  the  War 
of  1812,  and,  afterward,  richly  rewarded  as  secretary  of  war 
in  the  Cabinet  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  But  in  1805  the  Gov- 
ernor cheerfully  voted  for  his  removal,  thus  establishing  the 
dangerous  precedent  that  a  member  of  one's  political  house- 
hold was  to  be  treated  with  as  little  consideration  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  opposite  party. 

Although  Lewis'  conduct  in  the  case  of  Maturin  Livingston 
and  Peter  B.  Porter  was  not  the  most  foolish  act  in  a  career 
of  folly,  it  served  as  a  fitting  preface  to  his  policy  in  relation 
to  the  incorporation  of  the  Merchants'  Bank  of  New  York,  a 
policy  that  proved  fatal  to  his  ambition  and  to  the  influence 
of  the  Livingstons.  Already  doing  business  under  the  gen- 
eral laws,  two  Republican  Legislatures  had  refused  to  incor- 
porate the  Merchants'  Bank.  But  during  the  legislative  ses- 
sion of  1805  the  bank  people  determined  to  have  their  way, 
and  in  the  efforts  that  followed  they  used  methods  and  means 
common  enough  afterward,  but  probably  unknown  before 
that  winter.  Although  in  no  wise  connected  with  the  scandal 
growing  out  of  the  controversy,  Lewis  favoured  the  incorpo- 
ration of  the  bank.  On  the  other  hand,  DeWitt  Clinton  op- 
posed it,  maintaining  that  two  banks  in  New  York  City  were 
sufficient.  However,  the  Governor,  backed  by  the  Federalists 
and  a  small  Republican  majority,  was  successful.  In  the 
Council  of  Revision,  Ambrose  Spencer  opposed  the  act  of  in- 
corporation on  the  ground  that  existing  banks,  possessing 
five  million  dollars  of  capital,  with  authority  to  issue  notes 
and  create  debts  to  the  amount  of  fifteen  million  more,  were 


1S05]  BRIBEKY  AND  BANKS  149 

sufficient,  especially  as  the  United  States  had  suffered  an 
alarming  decrease  of  specie,  and  as  no  one  save  a  few  indi- 
viduals, inspired  solely  by  cupidity,  had  asked  for  a  new 
bank.  Spencer,  however,  relied  principally  in  his  attack 
upon  affidavits  of  Obadiah  German,  the  Republican  leader  of 
the  Assembly,  and  Stephen  Thorn  of  the  same  body,  charg- 
ing that  Senator  Ezenezer  Purdy,  the  father  of  the  measure, 
had  offered  them  large  rewards  for  their  votes,  German  hav- 
ing Purdy's  admission  that  he  had  become  convinced  of 
the  propriety  of  incorporating  the  bank  after  a  confidential 
conference  with  its  directors.  From  this  it  was  to  be  in- 
ferred, argued  Spencer,  that  before  such  improper  means 
were  made  use  of,  Purdy  himself,  whose  vote  was  necessary 
to  its  passage,  was  averse  to  its  incorporation.  "To  sanc- 
tion a  bill  thus  marked  in  its  progress  through  one  branch  of 
the  Legislature  with  bribery  and  corruption,"  concluded  the 
Judge,  ''would  be  subversive  of  all  pure  legislatiorij  and  be- 
come a  reproach  to  a  government  hitherto  renowned  for  the 
wisdom  of  its  councils  and  the  integrity  of  its  legislatures."^ 
But  Spencer's  opposition  and  Purdy's  resignation,  to  avoid 
an  investigation,  did  not  defeat  the  measure,  which  had  the 
support  of  Chief  Justice  Kent,  a  Federalist,  and  two  mem- 
bers of  the  Livingston  family,  a  majority  of  the  Council. 

DeWitt  Clinton  had  not  approved  the  Governor's  course. 
The  flagrant  partiality  shown  Lewis'  family  in  the  unpopu- 
lar appointment  of  Maturin  Livingston,  his  son-in-law,  dis- 
pleased him,  and  the  removal  of  Porter  seemed  to  him  un- 
timely and  vindictive.  In  killing  Hamilton,  Clinton  rea- 
soned. Burr  had  killed  himself  politically,  and  out  of  the 
way  him.self  there  was  no  occasion  to  punish  his  friends  who 
would  now  rejoin  and  strengthen  the  Republican  party. 
Clinton,  however,  remained  passive  in  his  opposition  until 
the  incorporation  of  the  bank  furnished  a  plausible  excuse 
for  an  appeal  to  the  party;  then,  with  a  determination  to 
subjugate  the  Livingstons,  he  caused  himself  and  his  adher- 
ents to  be  nominated  and  elected  to  the  State  Senate  upon 
*  Alfred  B.  Street,  New  York  Council  of  Revision,  p.  429. 


150  CLINTONS  AGAINST  LIVINGSTONS     [Chap.  xiii. 

the  platform  that  "a  new  bank  has  been  created  in  our  city, 
and  its  charter  granted  to  political  enemies."  It  was  a  bold 
move,  as  stubborn  as  it  was  dangerous.  Clinton  had  little 
to  gain.  The  Livingstons  were  not  long  to  continue  in  New 
York  politics.  Maturin  was  insignificant;  Broekkolst  was 
soon  to  pass  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  Ed- 
ward had  already  sought  a  new  home  and  greater  honours  in 
New  Orleans;  and  the  Chancellor,  having  returned  from 
France,  was  without  ambition  to  remain  longer  in  the  politi- 
cal arena.  Even  the  brothers-in-law  were  soon  to  disappear. 
John  Armstrong  was  in  France;  Smith  Thompson,  who  was 
to  follow  Brockholst  upon  the  bench  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  refused  to  engage  in  party  or  political  con- 
tests, and  the  gifts  of  Tillotson  and  Lewis  were  not  of  quality 
or  quantity  to  make  leaders  of  men.  On  the  other  hand, 
Clinton  had  much  to  lose  by  forcing  the  fight.  It  condemned 
him  to  a  career  of  almost  unbroken  opposition  for  the  rest 
of  his  life ;  it  made  precedents  that  lived  to  curse  him ;  and 
it  compelled  alliances  that  weakened  him. 

Lewis  resented  Clinton's  imperious  methods,  but  he  made 
a  fatal  mistake  in  furnishing  him  such  a  pretext  for  open  op- 
position. He  ought  to  have  known  that  in  opposing  the  Mer- 
chants' Bank,  Clinton  represented  the  great  majority  of  his 
party  which  did  not  believe  in  banks.  Undoubtedly  Clin- 
ton's interest  in  the  Manhattan  largely  controlled  his  attitude 
toward  the  Merchants',  but  the  controversy  over  the  latter 
was  so  old,  and  its  claims  had  been  pressed  so  earnestly  by 
the  Federalists  in  their  own  interest,  that  the  question  had 
practically  become  a  party  issue  as  much  as  the  contest  over 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Already  two  Republican  Leg- 
islatures had  defeated  it,  and  in  a  third  it  was  now  being 
urged  to  success  with  the  help  of  a  solid  Federalist  vote  and 
a  system  of  flagrant  bribery,  of  which  the  Governor  was  fully 
advised.  A  regard  for  party  opinion,  if  no  higher  motive, 
therefore,  might  well  have  governed  Lewis'  action.  After  the 
fight  had  been  precipitated,  resulting  in  a  warfare  fatal  to 
Lewis,  the  Governor's  apologists  claimed  that  in  favouring 


1806]  A  CLINTON  COUNCIL  151 

the  bank  he  had  simply  resisted  Clinton's  domination.  The 
Governor  may  have  thought  so,  but  it  was  further  evidence 
of  his  inability  either  to  understand  the  sentiment  domina- 
ting the  party  he  sought  to  represent,  or  successfully  to  com- 
pete with  Clinton  in  leadership.  DeWitt  Clinton,  with  all 
his  faults,  and  they  were  many  and  grave,  had  in  him  the 
gifts  of  a  master  and  the  capacity  of  a  statesman.  Lewis 
seems  to  have  had  neither  gifts  nor  capacity. 

In  January,  1806,  DeWitt  Clinton,  securing  a  majority  of 
the  Council  of  Appointment  by  the  election  of  himself  and 
two  friends,  sounded  the  signal  of  attack  upon  the  Governor 
and  his  supporters.  He  substituted  Pierre  C.  Van  Wyck  for 
Maturin  Livingston  and  Elisha  Jenkins  for  Thomas  Tillot- 
son.  The  Governor's  friends  were  also  evicted  from  minor 
office,  only  men  hostile  to  Lewis'  re-election  being  preferred. 
Nothing  could  be  less  justifiable,  or,  indeed,  more  nefarious 
than  such  removals.  They  were  discreditable  to  the  Council 
and  disgraceful  to  DeWitt  Clinton;  yet  sentiment  of  the 
time  seems  to  have  approved  them,  regarding  Clinton's  con- 
duct merely  as  a  stroke  of  good  politics.  In  the  midst  of  this 
wretched  business  it  is  pleasant  to  note  that  Jenkins'  trans- 
fer from  comptroller  to  secretary  of  state  opened  a  way  for 
the  appointment  of  Archibald  Mclntyre,  whose  safe  custody 
of  the  purse  in  days  when  economies  and  husbandries  were  in 
order,  distinguished  him  as  a  faithful  official,  and  kept  him 
in  office  until  1821. 

After  such  drastic  treatment  of  the  Governor,  it  is  not 
without  interest  to  think  of  Lewis  in  Albany  and  Clinton  in 
New  York  keeping  their  eyes  upon  the  election  in  April, 
1806,  both  alike  hopeful  of  finding  allies  in  the  party  break- 
up. The  advantage  seemed  to  be  wholly  with  the  Mayor  and 
not  with  the  Governor.  Indeed,  Republicans  of  all  factions 
were  so  well  assured  of  Clinton's  success  that  it  required  the 
faith  of  a  novice  in  politics  to  believe  that  Lewis  had  any 
chance.  But  DeWitt  Clinton  had  to  deal  with  two  classes  of 
men,  naturally  and  almost  relentlessly  opposed  to  him — the 
friends  of  Burr  and  the  Federalists.    It  was  of  immense  im- 


152  CLINTONS  AGAINST  LIVINGSTONS     [Chap.  xni. 

portance  that  the  former  should  stand  with  him,  since  the 
Federalists  were  certain  to  side  with  the  Lewisites  or 
"Quids,"  as  the  Governor's  friends  came  to  be  known,  and  to 
secure  such  an  advantage  Clinton  promptly  made  overtures 
to  the  Burrites,  of  whom  John  Swartout,  Peter  Irving  and 
Matthew  L.  Davis  were  the  leaders. 

There  is  some  confusion  as  to  details,  but  Davis  is  au- 
thority for  the  statement  that  in  December,  1805,  Theodorus 
Bailey,  as  Clinton's  agent,  promised  to  aid  Burr's  friends 
through  the  Manhattan  Bank,  to  recognise  them  as  Republi- 
cans, to  appoint  them  to  office  on  the  same  footing  with  the 
most  favoured  Clintonian,  and  to  stop  Cheetham's  attacks  in 
the  American  Citizen.  Clinton  pronounced  the  story  false, 
but  it  was  known  that  the  Manhattan  Bank  loaned  eighteen 
thousand  dollars  to  a  prominent  Burrite;  that  on  January 
24,  1806,  Clinton  met  Swartout,  Irving  and  Davis  at  the 
home  of  Bailey ;  and  that  afterward,  on  February  20,  leading 
Clintonians  banqueted  the  Burrites  at  Dyde's  Hotel  in  the 
suburbs  of  New  York  in  celebration  of  their  union.  There 
were  many  reasons  for  maintaining  the  profoundest  secrecy 
as  to  this  alliance  and  Dyde's  Hotel  had  been  selected  for  the 
purpose  of  avoiding  publicity,  but  the  morning's  papers  re- 
vealed the  secret  with  an  exaggerated  account  of  their  do- 
ings and  sayings.  Immediately,  other  Burrites,  joining  the 
Lewisites  at  Martling's  Long-room,  a  popular  meeting-place, 
organised  a  protestant  faction,  afterward  known  as  Mart- 
ling  Men,  whose  enmity  was  destined  to  follow  Clinton  to 
his  downfall. 

As  election  day  approached  the  Quids  made  a  decisive 
struggle  against  Clinton.  They  rehearsed  the  charges  of 
"Aristides ;"  they  denounced  him  as  cold  and  imperious ;  they 
charged  that  he  had  an  almost  boundless  political  ambition ; 
that  he  maintained  his  own  councils  regardless  of  his  asso- 
ciates, and  accepted  no  suggestion  not  in  harmony  with  his 
own  policy.  The  Martling  Men  accused  him  of  duplicity,  and 
of  a  desire  only  for  place  and  pay.  In  aid  of  Lewis,  Chan- 
cellor Lansing  took  this  opportunity  of  revealing  the  secret 


1806]  WILLIAM  W.   VAN  NESS  153 

that  led  him  to  withdraw  from  the  gubernatorial  race  in 
1804,  charging  that  George  Clinton  had  sought  "to  pledge 
him  to  a  particular  course  of  conduct  in  the  administration 
of  the  government  of  the  State."  When  the  latter  denied  the 
statement,  Lansing,  becoming  more  specific,  affirmed  that 
the  venerable  statesman  had  mentioned  DeWitt  Clinton  as  a 
suitable  person  for  chancellor.  It  is  not  surprising,  per- 
haps, that  DeWitt  Clinton's  reply  that  if  tendered  the  office 
he  would  have  declined  it,  fell  upon  increduluous  ears,  since 
the  young  man  at  that  very  moment  was  holding  three  of- 
fices and  drawing  three  salaries. 

But  the  contest  did  not  become  seriously  doubtful  until 
the  Quids  received  the  active  support  of  the  Federalists,  just 
then  led  by  William  W.  Van  Ness,  who  seems  to  have  leaped 
into  prominence  as  suddenly  as  did  ''Aristides,"  his  cousin. 
If  we  may  estimate  the  man  by  the  praises  of  his  contempo- 
raries, W^illiam  W.  Van  Ness'  eloquence  delighted  the  Assem- 
bly of  which  he  had  become  a  member  in  1805,  not  more  than 
his  pointed  and  finished  wit  charmed  every  social  gathering 
which  he  honoured  with  his  presence.  Indeed,  as  a  popular 
orator  he  seems  to  have  had  no  rival.  Though  his  passion 
for  distinction  was  too  ardent  and  his  fondness  for  sensual 
pleasure  immoderate,  sober  minded  men  were  carried  away 
with  the  fascinating  effervescence  of  his  public  utterances 
and  the  brilliancy  of  his  conversation.  He  had  a  commanding 
presence,  almost  a  colossal  form,  and  a  voice  marvellous  for 
its  strength  and  for  the  music  of  its  intonations.  He  was 
neither  profound  nor  learned.  The  common  school  at  Claver- 
ack,  where  he  was  born  in  independence  year,  furnished  him 
little  more  than  the  rudiments  of  English,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty  he  closed  the  door  to  further  advancement  by  pre- 
maturely burdening  himself  with  a  family ;  yet  he  seemed  to 
know  without  apparent  effort  everything  that  was  necessary 
to  know,  and  to  exert  a  gentle,  unconscious,  unpretending 
power  that  was  resistless,  A  sweetness  of  temper  and  a  na- 
tive dignity  of  manner  cast  a  grace  and  charm  about  him 
which  acted  as  a  spell  upon  all  who  came  within  its  influ- 


154  CLINTONS  AGAINST  LIVINGSTONS     [Chap.  xiii. 

ence.  Hammond,  the  historian,  thought  him  the  possessor 
of  every  gift  that  nature  and  fortune  could  bestow — wit, 
beauty,  good  nature,  suave  manners,  eloquence,  and  admir- 
able conversation.  Such  a  combination  gave  him  leadership, 
and  he  led  his  followers  solidly  to  Lewis,  with  the  result 
that  the  coalition  of  Federalists  and  Quids  won  out  by  a 
small  majority. 

When  the  Legislature  assembled,  in  January,  1807,  the  in- 
tense bitterness  of  the  fight  exhibited  itself  in  the  defeat  of 
Solomon  Southwick  for  clerk  of  the  Assembly.  Southwick 
possessed  the  amiable,  winning  qualities  that  characterised 
William  W.  Van  Ness.  He  was  associated  with  his  brother- 
in-law  in  the  management  of  the  Albany  Register,  and  from 
his  earliest  youth  had  been  as  zealous  a  Republican  as  he 
was  warm  and  disinterested  in  his  friendships.  To  friend  and 
foe  he  was  alike  cordial  and  generous.  He  possessed  an  open 
mind,  not  so  eloquent  as  Van  Ness,  and  less  brilliant,  per- 
haps, in  conversation ;  but  the  fluent  splendour  of  his  speech 
and  the  beauty  of  his  person  and  manners  went  as  far  toward 
the  attainment  of  his  ambition.  He  had  been  elected  clerk  of 
the  Assembly  continuously  since  1803,  until  his  popularity 
among  the  members,  whom  he  served  with  uniform  politeness 
and  zeal,  seemed  proof  against  the  attacks  of  any  adversary. 
Just  now,  however,  the  enemies  of  DeWitt  Clinton  were  the 
opponents  of  Solomon  Southwick,  while  his  rival,  Garret  Y. 
Lansing,  the  nephew  of  the  Chancellor,  had  become  the  bit- 
terest and  most  formidable  enemy  the  Clintons  had  to  en- 
counter. Popular  as  he  was,  Southwick  could  not  win 
against  such  odds,  although  it  turned  out  that  a  change  of 
four  votes  would  have  elected  him. 

A  Lewis  Council  of  Appointment  made  a  clean  sweep  of 
the  Governor's  enemies  and  of  DeWitt  Clinton's  friends. 
Clinton  himself  gave  up  the  mayoralty  of  New  York,  Ma- 
turin  Livingston  again  assumed  the  duties  of  recorder,  and 
Thomas  Tillotson  was  restored  to  the  office  of  secretary  of 
state.  Perhaps  Clinton  thought  he  stood  too  high  to  be  in 
danger  from  Lewis'  hand.  If  he  did  he  found  out  his  mistake, 


1807]  CLINTON'S  HUMILIATION  155 

for  Lewis  struck  him  down  in  the  most  unsparing  and  humil- 
iating way.  Public  affront  was  added  to  political  depriva- 
tion. Without  warning  or  explanation,  the  first  motion  put 
at  the  first  meeting  of  the  new  Council,  on  February  G,  1807, 
made  him  the  first  sacrifice.  Had  he  been  a  justice  of  the 
peace  in  a  remote  western  county  he  could  not  have  been 
treated  more  rudely ;  and,  it  may  be  added,  if  better  reason 
than  that  already  existing  were  needed  to  seal  the  fate  of 
Lewis,  Clinton's  removal  furnished  it.  New  York  has  seldom 
been  roused  to  greater  passion  by  a  governor's  act.  It  could 
even  then  be  said  of  Clinton  that  his  name  was  associated 
with  every  great  enterprise  for  the  public  good.  Less  than 
a  year  before,  in  his  efforts  to  educate  the  children  of  the 
poor,  unprovided  for  in  parochial  schools,  he  had  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  public  school  system,  heading  the  subscrip- 
tion list  for  the  purchase  of  suitable  quarters.  In  spite  of 
his  faults  he  was  a  great  executive,  and  before  the  sun  went 
down  on  the  day  of  his  removal  a  large  majority  of  the  Re- 
publican members  of  the  Legislature,  guided  by  the  deposed 
mayor,  had  nominated  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  for  governor  in 
place  of  Morgan  Lewis. 

In  disposing  of  the  mayoralty,  Lewis  recognised  the  im- 
portance of  keeping  it  in  the  family,  and  offered  it  to  Smith 
Thompson,  both  of  whose  wives  were  Livingstons;  but  only 
once  in  forty  years  did  Thompson's  love  for  the  judiciary 
give  way  to  political  preferment,  and  then  Martin  Van  Buren 
defeated  him  for  governor.  The  mayoralty  finally  went  to 
Marinus  Willett,  an  officer  of  distinguished  service  in  the 
Revolutionary  war,  whose  gallantry  at  Fort  Schuyler  in  the 
summer  of  1777  won  him  a  sword  from  Congress  and  the  ad- 
miration of  General  Washington.  But  the  steadfast,  judi- 
cious qualities  that  commended  him  as  a  soldier  seem  to  have 
forsaken  him  as  a  politician.  He  supported  Burr,  he  fol- 
lowed Lewis,  and  he  finally  ran  for  lieutenant-governor 
against  DeWitt  Clinton,  the  regular  nominee  of  his  party, 
losing  the  election  by  a  large  majority;  yet  his  amiability 
and  war  services  kept  him  a  favourite  in  spite  of  his  political 


156  CLINTONS  AGAINST  LIVINGSTONS     [Chap.  xiir. 

wiivering.  It  was  hard  for  a  lover  of  his  country  to  dislike 
a  real  hero  of  the  Revolution,  even  though  he  forfeited  the 
confidence  of  his  party. 

Clinton,  who  had  kept  his  head  cool  in  victory,  did  not  lose 
it  in  defeat ;  but  the  Governor  found  himself  in  an  awkward 
and  humiliating  position.  Although  the  Federalists  had 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  organise  the  Legislature  and 
elect  a  friendly  Council,  he  dared  not  appoint  one  of  them  to 
oflSce,  and  tlie  few  ambitious  Republicans  who  had  marshalled 
under  his  standard  proved  inferior,  inexperienced,  or  indis- 
creet. Only  one  Federalist  fared  well,  and  he  succeeded  in 
spite  of  Lewis.  William  W.  Van  Ness  aspired  to  the  Supreme 
Court  judgeship  made  vacant  b}^  Brockholst  Livingston's  ap- 
pointment to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  The 
Governor,  favouring,  of  course,  a  member  of  his  own  family, 
proposed  Maturin  Livingston.  To  this  Thomas  Thomas  of 
the  Council  agreed,  but  Edward  Savage  proposed  John 
Woodworth;  John  Nicholas  inclined  to  Jonas  Piatt,  and 
James  Burt,  the  fourth  member  of  the  Council,  preferred 
Van  Ness.  Piatt  was  a  Federalist,  and  in  his  way  a  remark- 
able man.  His  father,  Zephaniah  Piatt,  served  in  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  as  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  had 
pushed  his  way  to  the  northern  frontier,  founded  Plattsburg, 
and  advocated  a  system  of  canals  connecting  the  Hudson 
with  the  lakes.  The  son,  following  his  example,  studied  law 
and  emigrated  to  the  western  frontier,  settling  in  Herkimer 
County,  at  Whitesboro.  He  had  already  served  one  term  in 
the  Legislature  and  one  in  Congress,  and  was  destined  to  re- 
ceive other  honourable  preferment.  But  just  now  Nicholas, 
his  political  backer,  a  recent  comer  from  Virginia,  who  had 
served  with  him  in  Congress,  was  no  match  for  the  adroit 
Burt,  whose  shrewd  management  in  the  interest  of  Aaron 
Burr  had  recently  sent  Theodorus  Bailey  to  the  United 
States  Senate  over  John  Woodworth.  Burt  convinced  Nich- 
olas that  Piatt's  candidacy  would  result  in  the  election  of 
Livingston  or  Woodworth,  and  having  thus  destroyed  the 
Herkimer  lawyer,  he  appealed  to  Savage  to  drop  Woodworth 


ISOT]  NEPOTISM  KEBUKED  157 

in  favour  of  Van  Ness.  Savage  was  a  Republican  of  the  old 
school,  a  supporter  of  George  Clinton,  an  opponent  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  who  had  apparently  followed  Lewis 
for  what  he  could  make  out  of  it ;  but  he  was  indisposed  to 
add  to  the  sin  of  rebellion  against  DeWitt  Clinton  the  folly 
of  voting  for  Maturin  Livingston,  and  so  he  joined  Burt  and 
Nicholas  in  support  of  Van  Ness.  Thus  it  happened  that 
the  popular  young  orator  became  a  member  of  the  Supreme 
Court  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-one,  being  the  youngest  mem- 
ber of  the  court,  save  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  to  serve  on  the 
old,  conservative  Council  of  Revision. 

News  of  this  bad  business  intensified  the  angry  feeling 
against  the  Governor.  A  place  on  the  Supreme  Court,  val- 
ued then  even  more  highly  than  now,  had  been  lost  to  the 
party  because  of  his  arrogant  and  consuming  nepotism,  and 
men  turned  with  enthusiasm  to  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  whose 
nomination  for  governor  brought  him  champions  that  had 
heretofore  avoided  all  appearance  of  violent  partisanship. 
Tompkins  was  accepted  as  the  exponent  of  all  that  Republi- 
cans most  prized;  Lewis  as  their  most  obstinate  and  offen- 
sive opponent.  Thus,  at  last,  the  Clintons  faced  the  Living- 
stons on  a  fair  field. 


I 


CHAPTER    XIV 
DANIEL  D.   TOMPKINS  AND   DeWITT   CLINTON 

1807-1810 

Had  DeWitt  Clinton  succeeded  to  the  governorship  in 
1807,  his  way  to  the  Presidency,  upon  which  his  eye  was  al- 
ready fixed,  might  have  opened  easily  and  surely.  But  the 
bitterness  of  the  Livingstons  and  the  unfriendly  disposition 
of  the  Federalists  compelled  him  to  flank  the  difficulty  by 
presenting  a  candidate  for  governor  who  was  void  of  of- 
fence. If  it  was  humiliating  to  admit  his  own  ineligibility, 
it  was  no  less  so  to  meet  the  new  condition,  for  Lewis'  elec- 
tion in  1804  had  discovered  the  scarcity  of  available  material, 
and  developed  the  danger  of  relying  upon  another  to  do  his 
bidding.  Just  now  Clinton  wanted  a  candidate  with  no  con- 
victions, no  desires,  no  ambitions,  and  no  purposes  save  to 
please  him.  There  were  men  enough  of  this  kind,  but  they 
could  neither  conceal  their  master's  hand,  nor  command  the 
suffrages  of  a  majority  on  their  own  account.  In  this  crisis, 
therefore,  he  selected,  to  the  surprise  of  all  and  to  the  dis- 
gust of  some,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  the  young  and  amiable 
justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  had  taken  the  place  of 
James  Kent  on  the  latter's  promotion  to  chief  justice. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  day  which  witnessed  DeWitt 
Clinton's  removal  from  the  New  York  mayoralty,  welcomed 
into  larger  political  life  this  man  of  honourable  parentage, 
who  was  destined  to  play  a  very  conspicuous  part  in  affairs 
of  state.  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  a  youth  of  promise  and  a 
young  man  of  ripening  wisdom,  had  been  for  some  years  in 
the  public  eye,  first  as  a  member  of  the  constitutional  con- 
vention of  1801,  afterward  as  a  successful  candidate  for  Con- 

158 


1774-1807]  TOMPKINS'  RAPID  EISE  159 

gress,  and  later  as  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  His  rise 
had  been  phenomenally  rapid.  He  passed  from  the  farm  to 
the  college  at  seventeen,  from  college  to  the  law  office  at 
twenty-one,  from  the  law  office  to  the  constitutional  con- 
vention at  twenty-seven,  and  thence  to  Congress  and  the  Su- 
preme Court  at  thirty.  He  was  now  to  become  governor  at 
thirty-three.  But  with  all  his  promise  and  wisdom  and 
rapid  advancement,  no  one  dreamed  in  1807  that  he  was  soon 
to  divide  political  honour  and  power  with  DeWitt  Clinton, 
five  years  his  senior. 

Tompkins  was  on  the  farm  when  Clinton  was  in  Columbia 
College ;  but  if  the  plow  lengthened  his  days,  study  shortened 
his  nights,  and  five  years  after  Clinton  graduated,  Tomp- 
kins entered  the  same  institution.  Just  then  it  was  a  stern 
chase.  Clinton  had  the  advantage  of  family,  Tompkins  the 
disadvantage  of  being  a  stranger.  When  the  former  entered 
the  Legislature,  the  latter  had  only  opened  a  law  office.  Then, 
but  four  years  later,  they  met  in  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion, Clinton  on  the  winning  side  and  Tompkins  on  the  right 
side.  The  purpose  of  this  convention,  it  will  be  recalled,  had 
been  to  give  each  member  of  the  Council  of  Appointment  the 
power  to  nominate  candidates  for  office — Clinton  holding 
that  the  Council  had  the  right  to  nominate  as  well  as  to 
confirm  appointments;  Tompkins,  with  barely  a  dozen  as- 
sociates, took  the  ground,  maintained  by  Governors  Clinton 
and  Jay,  that  its  power  was  limited  to  confirmation.  This 
position  showed  the  nerve  as  well  as  the  independence  of  the 
younger  man,  and  he  was  able  proudly  to  refer  to  it  when, 
twenty  years  later,  the  constitutional  convention  of  1821, 
inspired  by  the  popular  contempt,  achieved  the  abolition  of 
the  Council,  and  with  it  the  political  corruption  and  favour- 
itism to  which  it  had  given  rise. 

The  record  of  New  York  politics  is  a  record  of  long  and 
bitter  contests  between  these  chiefs  of  two  antagonistic  Re- 
publican factions.  What  the  struggle  between  Stalwarts 
and  Half  Breeds  was  to  our  own  time,  the  struggle  between 
Clinton  and  Tompkins  was  to  our  ancestors  of  two  and  three 


160  TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON    [Chap.  xiv. 

generations  ago.  Two  men  could  hardly  be  more  sharply  con- 
trasted. The  one  appeared  cold  and  reserved,  the  other  most 
gracious  and  gentle;  Clinton's  self-conlidence  destroyed  the 
fidelity  of  those  who  differed  in  opinion,  Tompkins'  urbanity 
disarmed  their  disloyalty;  Clinton  was  unrelenting,  dogged 
in  his  tenacity,  quick  to  speak  harshly,  moving  within  lines 
of  purpose  regardless  of  those  of  least  resistance.  Although 
he  often  changed  his  associates,  like  Lord  Shaftesbmy,  he 
never  changed  his  purposes.  Tompkins,  always  firm  and 
dignified,  was  affable  in  manner,  sympathetic  in  speech,  over- 
flowing with  good  nature,  and  unpretending  to  all  who  ap- 
proached him.  It  used  to  be  said  that  Tompkins  made  more 
friends  in  refusing  favours  than  Clinton  did  in  granting 
them. 

The  two  men  also  differed  as  much  in  personal  appearance 
as  in  manner.  Tompkins,  shapely  and  above  the  ordinary 
height,  had  large,  full  eyes,  twinkling  with  kindness,  a  high 
forehead  wreathed  with  dark,  curly  hair,  and  an  oval  face, 
easily  and  usually  illuminated  with  a  smile;  Clinton  had  a 
big  frame,  square  shoulders,  a  broad,  full  forehead,  short, 
pompadour  hair,  dark  penetrating  eyes,  and  a  large  mouth 
with  lips  firmly  set.  It  was  a  strong  face.  A  dullard  could 
read  his  character  at  a  glance.  To  his  intimate  friends  Clin- 
ton was  undoubtedly  a  social,  agreeable  companion ;  but  the 
dignified  imperiousness  of  his  manner  and  the  severity  of 
his  countenance  usually  overcame  the  ordinary  visitor  before 
the  barriers  of  his  reserve  were  broken.  Tompkins,  on  the 
contrary,  carried  the  tenderness  of  a  wide  humanity  in  his 
face. 

It  was  hardly  creditable  to  Clinton's  knowledge  of  human 
nature  that  he  selected  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  for  a  gubernato- 
rial candidate,  if  he  sought  a  man  whom  he  might  control. 
The  memory  of  the  constitutional  convention,  or  a  glance 
into  the  history  of  the  elder  Tompkins,  who  had  stood  firm 
and  unyielding  in  the  little  settlement  of  Fox  Meadows  in 
Winchester  after  the  American  defeat  on  Long  Island,  when 
all  his  neighbours  save  two  had  faltered  in  the  cause  of  inde- 


1807]  THE  FARMEE'S   BOY  161 

pendence,  would  have  enlightened  him  respecting  the  Tomp- 
kins character.  The  farmer  boy's  determined,  patient  prepa- 
ration for  public  life,  and  his  fortitude  in  the  face  of  con- 
scious disadvantages,  ought  also  to  have  suggested  that  the 
young  man  was  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  the  obedient  Theo- 
dorus  Bailey.  Still  more  surprising  is  it  that  Clinton  should 
overlook,  or  insufficiently  consider  the  fact  that  Tompkins 
was  now  the  son-in-law  of  Mangle  Minthorne,  a  wealthy  citi- 
zen of  New  York,  and  the  leader  of  the  Martling  Men,  of 
whose  opposition  he  had  already  been  apprised,  and  whose 
bitter  hostility  he  was  about  to  experience.  If  he  thought  to 
disarm  the  enemity  of  Minthorne  by  helping  the  son-in-law, 
his  hopes  were  raised  only  to  be  dashed  to  earth  again. 

It  is  certain  DeWitt  Clinton  had  no  one  save  himself  to 
thank  for  taking  this  Hercules,  whose  political  direction  was 
conspicuously  inevitable  from  the  first.  But  Clinton  wanted 
an  assured  victor  against  Morgan  Lewis  and  the  Living- 
stons, with  their  Federalist  supporters,  and,  although  some 
people  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  Tompkins  had  already 
been  promoted  too  rapidly,  Clinton  believed  his  services  on 
the  bench  had  made  him  the  most  available  man  in  the  party. 
For  three  years  this  young  judge,  substituting  sympathy  for 
severity,  had  endeared  himself  to  all  who  knew  him.  The 
qualities  of  fairness  and  fitness  which  Greek  wisdom  praised 
in  the  conduct  of  life  were  characteristic  of  his  life.  From 
what  we  know  of  his  work  it  is  fair  to  presume,  had  he  tar- 
ried upon  the  bench  until  1821,  he  would  have  been  a  worthy 
associate  of  Smith  Thompson  and  Ambrose  Spencer. 

Sixty-five  Republican  members  of  the  Legislature  signed 
the  address,  drawn  by  DeWitt  Clinton,  putting  Tompkins 
into  the  race  for  governor;  forty-five  indorsed  the  platform 
on  which  Governor  Lewis  stood  for  re-election.  The  Clinton 
address  gave  no  reason  for  preferring  Tompkins  to  Lewis, 
but  the  latter's  weakness  as  an  executive,  foreshadowed  a  de- 
feat which  each  day  made  plainer,  and  when  the  votes, 
€0unted  on  the  last  day  of  April,  gave  Tompkins  4085  ma- 
jority, the  result  was  as  gratifying  to  Clinton  as  it  was  dis- 


162  TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT  CLINTON  [Chap.  xiv. 

astrous  to  Lewis.^  It  was  not  a  sweeping  victory,  such  as 
Lewis  had  won  over  Burr  three  years  before,  for  the  former's 
weakness  was  less  offensive  than  the  latter's  wickedness,  but 
it  launched  the  successful  candidate  on  his  long  period  of 
authority,  which  was  not  to  be  ended  until  he  was  broken  in 
health,  if  not  in  character. 

Daniel  D.  Tompkins  had  the  good  fortune  to  begin  his  ad- 
ministration at  a  time  when  England  and  the  United  States 
were  about  to  quarrel  over  the  former's  insistence  on  im- 
pressing American  seamen  into  its  service,  thus  giving  the 
people  something  to  think  about  save  offices,  and  dividing 
them  again  sharply  into  two  parties.  Indeed,  while  the 
election  was  pending  in  April,  three  deserters  from  the 
Melampiis,  a  British  sloop-of-war,  by  enlisting  on  the  Chesa- 
peake, a  L'nited  States  frigate  of  thirty-eight  guns,  became 
the  innocent  cause  of  subjecting  the  United  States  to  gross 
insult.  The  American  government,  smarting  under  Eng- 
land's impressment  of  its  seamen,  refused  to  surrender  these 
deserters,  inquiries  showing  that  they  were  coloured  men  of 
American  birth,  two  of  whom  had  been  pressed  into  the 
British  service  from  an  American  vessel  in  the  Bay  of  Bis- 
cay. When  the  Cliesapeake  sailed,  therefore,  the  Leopard., 
an  English  man-of-war  mounting  fifty  guns,  followed  her  to 
the  high  seas  and  demanded  a  return  of  the  deserters.  Re- 
ceiving a  promj>t  refusal,  the  Englishman  raked  the  decks 
of  the  Chesapeal'C  for  the  space  of  twelve  minutes,  killing 
three  men  and  wounding  eighteen,  among  them  the  comman- 
der. The  Chesapeake  was  not  yet  ready  for  action.  Her 
crew  was  undrilled  in  the  use  of  ordnance,  her  decks  littered, 
appliances  for  reloading  were  wanting,  and  at  the  supreme 
moment  neither  priming  nor  match  could  be  found.  Under 
these  distressing  circumstances,  the  boarding  officer  of  the 
Leopard  took  the  deserters  and  sailed  for  Halifax.  The  sight 
of  the  dismantled  Chesapeake,  with  its  dead  and  dying, 
aroused  the  people  irrespective  of  party  into  demanding  rep- 

'  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  35,074;  Morgan  Lewis,  30,989.— Cit)i7  List, 
State  of  New  York   (1887),  p.  166. 


1807]  THE   ODIOUS   EMBAEGO  163 

aration  or  war.  ''This  country,"  wrote  Jefferson,  ''has  never 
been  in  such  a  state  of  excitement  since  the  battle  of  Lex- 
ington."^  Immediately  the  most  exposed  ports  were  strength- 
ened, and  the  States  were  called  upon  to  organise  and  equip 
100,000  militia  ready  to  march.  Among  other  things,  Jeffer- 
son ordered  British  cruisers  to  depart  from  American 
waters,  forbidding  all  aid  and  intercourse  with  them. 

On  the  day  of  Governor  Tompkins'  inauguration  the  crip- 
pled ChesapeaJce  sailed  back  into  Norfolk;  and  before  the 
New  York  Legislature  assembled  in  the  following  January, 
England  had  published  its  Orders  in  Council,  forbidding 
all  neutral  trade  with  France.  Napoleon  had  also  promul- 
gated his  Milan  Decree,  forbidding  all  neutral  trade  with 
England,  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  with  closed 
doors,  in  obedience  to  the  recommendation  of  the  President, 
had  ordered  an  embargo  forbidding  all  foreign-bound  Ameri- 
can vessels  to  leave  United  States  ports. 

For  several  years  American  commerce,  centring  chiefly 
in  New  England  and  New  York,  and  occupying  a  neutral 
position  toward  European  belligerents,  had  enjoyed  unpar- 
alleled prosperity.  Reaching  all  parts  of  the  world,  it  had, 
indeed,  largely  engrossed  the  carrying  trade,  especially  of 
France  and  the  European  powers.  As  restraints  increased, 
the  Yankee  skippers  became  sly  and  cunning — risking  cap- 
ture, using  neutral  flags,  and  finding  other  subterfuges  for 
new  restrictions.  The  embargo  would  tie  up  the  ships  to 
rot,  throw  seamen  out  of  employment,  destroy  perishable 
commodities  like  breadstuffs,  and  paralyse  trade.  From  the 
moment  of  its  passage,  therefore,  merchants  and  shipowners 
resisted  it,  charging  that  Napoleon's  Decree  had  provoked 
the  British  Orders,  and  that  if  the  former  would  recede,  the 
latter  would  be  modified.  It  revived  the  old  charge  of  Jef- 
ferson's enmity  to  commerce.  In  the  excitement,  DeWitt 
Clinton  opposed  it,  and  Cheetham,  with  his  bitter,  irritating 
pen,  sustained  him.  He  thought  American  commerce  might 
be  left  to  solve  the  difficulty  for  itself,  by  allowing  mer- 

'  Jefferson  to  Colonel  Taylor,  August  1,  1807;  Works,  v.,  148. 


164  TOJJTKINS  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON   [Chap.  xiv. 

chants  to  arm  their  vessels  or  otherwise  encounter  the  risks 
and  perils  at  their  own  discretion,  rather  than  be  compelled 
to  abandon  the  highway  of  nations  to  their  British  rivals, 
whose  sole  purpose,  he  maintained,  was  to  drive  us  from  the 
ocean  and  capture  French  supplies  being  transported  in 
French  vessels. 

But  the  Republicans  in  Congress  stood  firmly  by  the  em- 
bargo, holding  that  if  George  Canning  would  modify  the 
Orders  in  Council,  which  were  intended  to  drive  American 
commerce  from  the  ocean,  Napoleon  would  modify'  his  de- 
crees, which  were  provoked  by  the  British  Orders.  It  was 
not  a  question  of  avoiding  sacrifices,  said  Governor  Tomp- 
kins, in  his  speech  to  the  Legislature,  in  January-,  1808,  but 
whether  one  sacrifice  might  not  better  be  borne  than  another. 
The  belligerents  had  issued  decrees  regardless  of  our  rights. 
If  we  carried  for  England,  France  would  confiscate;  if  for 
France,  England  would  confiscate.  England  exacted  tribute, 
and  insisted  upon  the  right  of  search;  France  demanded  for- 
feiture if  we  permitted  search  or  paid  tribute;  between  the 
two  the  world  was  closed  to  us.  But  the  belligerents  needed 
our  wheat  and  breadstutfs,  and  while  the  embargo  was  in- 
tended only  for  a  temporary  expedient,  giving  the  people 
time  for  reflection,  and  keeping  our  vessels  and  cargoes  from 
spoliation,  it  must  prevail  in  the  end  by  making  Europe  feel 
the  denial  of  neutral  favours.  ''What  patriotic  citizen,"  he 
concluded,  "will  murmur  at  the  temporary  privations  and 
inconveniences  resulting  from  this  measure,  when  he  reflects 
upon  the  vast  expenditure  of  national  treasure,  the  sacrifice 
of  the  lives  of  our  countrymen,  the  total  and  permanent  sus- 
pension of  commerce,  the  corruption  of  morals,  and  the  dis- 
tress and  misery  consequent  upon  our  being  involved  in  the 
war  between  the  nations  of  Europe?  The  evils  which 
threaten  us  call  for  a  magnanimous  confidence  in  the  efforts 
of  our  national  councils  to  avert  them,  and  for  a  firm,  unani- 
mous determination  to  devote  everything  that  is  dear  to  us 
to  maintain  our  right  and  national  honour."^ 

^  Governor's  SpeecJies.    January  26,  1808,  p.  98. 


1S07]  SWIFT    CHANGE    OF   OFFICIALS  165 

Governor  Tompkins'  views,  sustained  by  decided  major- 
ities in  both  branches  of  the  Legislature,  hastened  DeWitt 
Clinton's  change  of  attitude;  and,  to  the  great  disgust  of 
Cheetham,  he  now  swung  into  line.  Deceived  by  the  first  out- 
cry against  Jefferson's  policy,  Clinton  had  presided  at  an 
opposition  meeting,  while  Cheetham,  following  his  lead,  had 
assailed  it  in  the  American  Citizen.  In  the  same  spirit  George 
Clinton,  the  Vice  President,  imprudently  and  impulsively  at- 
tacked it  in  letters  to  his  friends ;  but  DeWitt  Clinton,  see- 
ing his  mistake,  quickly  jumped  into  line  with  his  party, 
leaving  Cheetham  and  his  uncle  to  return  as  best  they  could. 
It  was  an  ungracious  act,  since  Cheetham,  who  had  devoted 
the  best  of  his  powers  in  justifying  the  conduct  of  Clinton, 
was  now  left  in  the  air,  without  the  means  of  gracefully 
getting  down. 

Meantime,  the  new  Council  of  Appointment,  elected  in 
February,  and  controlled  by  DeWitt  Clinton,  had  reversed 
the  work  of  Lewis.  Marinus  Willett  surrendered  the  mayor- 
alty to  DeWitt  Clinton,  Maturin  Livingston  gave  up  the 
recorder-ship,  Thomas  Tillotson  turned  over  the  secretary- 
ship of  state  to  Elisha  Jenkins,  Sylvanus  Miller  again  be- 
came surrogate  of  New  York,  and  John  Woodworth  was 
dismissed  from  the  office  of  attorney-general.  Under  the 
Constitution,  the  Legislature  elected  the  treasurer  of  the 
State,  an  office  which  Abraham  G.  Lansing,  brother  of  the 
Chancellor  and  father  of  Garrett,  had  held  continuously 
since  the  defalcation  of  McClanan  in  1803.  Lansing  was 
wealthy,  and,  like  his  brother,  a  man  of  the  highest  charac- 
ter for  integrity  and  correct  business  methods,  but  he  had 
followed  Lewis  to  defeat  and  now  paid  the  penalty  by  giv- 
ing place  to  David  Thomas,  who,  like  McClanan,  was  also  to 
prove  a  defaulter.  Thus,  within  a  year  after  Tompkins' 
inauguration,  an  entire  change  of  persons  holding  civil  of- 
fices in  the  State  had  taken  place,  the  Governor  shrewdly 
strengthening  himself  by  assuming  to  have  helped  the  win- 
ners, and  weakening  Clinton  by  permitting  the  disappointed 
to  charge  their  failure  to  the  Mayor. 


166  TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON    [Chap.  xiv. 

The  nomination  of  a  Republican  candidate  to  succeed 
Jefferson,  gave  Tompkins  further  opportunity  of  strengthen- 
ing himself  at  the  expense  of  DeWitt  Clinton.  For  months 
the  latter  had  been  urging  the  claims  of  George  Clinton  for 
President,  on  the  ground  of  the  Vice  President's  hitherto 
undisputed  right  to  promotion,  and  because  Virginia  had 
held  the  office  long  enough.  But  a  congressional  caucus, 
greatly  to  the  disgust  of  Monroe  and  the  Clintons,  and  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  Vice  President,  hastily  got  together 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  day  and  nominated  James 
Madison  for  President  and  George  Clinton  for  Vice  Presi- 
dent. The  disappointed  friends  of  Monroe  and  Clinton 
charged  that  the  caucus  was  irregular,  only  eighty-nine  out 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  Republican  representatives 
and  senators  having  attended  it,  and  could  they  have  "crreed 
upon  a  candidate  among  themselves  Madison  must  have  been 
beaten.  Leading  Federalists  waited  until  late  in  April  for 
DeWitt  Clinton  to  make  some  arrangement  which  their 
party  might  support,  but,  while  Federalists  waited,  the 
threatened  Republican  bolt  wasted  itself  in  a  fruitless  en- 
deavour to  unite  upon  a  candidate  for  first  place.  Monroe's 
friends  would  not  have  George  Clinton,  whom  they  pro- 
nounced too  old  and  too  infirm,  and  Clinton's  friends  de- 
clined to  accept  Monroe,  who  was  objectionable,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  because  he  was  a  Virginian.  Finally,  the  Fed- 
eralists nominated  Charles  C.  Pinckney  of  South  Carolina 
for  President  and  Rufus  King  of  New  York  for  Vice  Presi- 
dent, making  Madison's  election  absolutely  certain. 

This  ought  to  have  ended  the  strife  in  Republican  ranks. 
Under  similar  circumstances  any  ordinary  politician  would 
liave  hastened  to  re-establish  himself  with  his  party.  But 
DeWitt  Clinton,  carrying  the  contest  to  the  New  York  Leg- 
islature, called  to  appoint  presidential  electors,  insisted  that 
the  vote  of  the  State  be  given  to  his  uncle.  The  strong  affec- 
tion for  the  venerable  statesman  insured  the  suggestion  fa- 
vourable consideration  by  a  large  portion  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  Tompkins  assailed  it  with  unanswerable  argu- 


1808]  MISTAKES  OF  CLINTON  167 

ment.  Without  being  of  the  slightest  use  to  George  Clinton, 
he  contended,  such  a  course  would  exhibit  an  unhappj  divi- 
sion in  Republican  ranks,  excite  the  jealousy  of  Madison's 
friends,  impair  the  influence  of  New  York  Republicans  with 
the  Administration,  and  make  them  appear  ridiculous  to 
their  brethren  in  other  States.  This  was  the  talk  of  a  wise 
politician.  The  contest  was  squarely  between  James  Madi- 
son, regularly  nominated  by  the  method  then  accepted,  and 
Charles  C.  Pinckney,  the  candidate  of  the  Federalists;  and 
a  vote  for  Clinton  meant  a  Republican  vote  thrown  away  out 
of  pique.  DeWitt  Clinton  understood  this;  but  he  could 
not  curb  a  disposition  to  have  things  his  way,  and,  upon  his 
insistence,  it  was  finally  agreed  that  each  elector  should  vote 
his  preference.  Under  this  arrangement,  George  Clinton  re- 
ceived six  votes  out  of  the  nineteen,  Ambrose  Spencer  lead- 
ing the  minority.  Of  the  votes  cast  for  President,  Madison 
received  122,  Clinton  6,  and  Pinckney  48 ;  for  Vice  President, 
George  Clinton  had  113,  Rufus  King  48,  John  Langdon  of 
New  Hampshire  9,  and  Madison  and  Monroe  three  each,  the 
votes  of  Judge  Spencer  and  his  five  associates. 

Within  a  twelve-month  DeWitt  Clinton  had  plainly  made 
a  series  of  serious  mistakes.  He  had  opposed  the  embargo,  he 
had  antagonised  Madison,  who  still  resented  the  Clintons' 
opposition  to  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  he  had  forced  a 
discovery  of  Tompkins'  superior  management  and  political 
wisdom.  To  add  to  his  embarrassment,  the  Lewisites,  the 
Burrites,  and  the  Martling  Men  now  openly  charged  him 
with  hostility  to  Madison  and  with  insincere  support  of  Jef- 
ferson and  Tompkins,  since  he  continued  on  friendly  terms 
with  Cheetham,  who  still  bitterly  opposed  the  embargo.  If 
these  three  political  groups  of  men,  having  a  bond  of  union 
in  their  common  detestation  of  DeWitt  Clinton,  could  have 
found  a  leader  able  to  marshal  them,  they  must  have  com- 
passed the  latter's  political  overthrow  long  before  he  pros- 
trated himself.  Already  it  was  whispered  that  Tompkins  ap- 
proved their  attacks,  a  suspicion  that  found  many  believers, 
since  Minthorne  had  set  to  work  to  destroy  Clinton.    But  the 


16S  TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT  CLINTON   [Chap.  xiv. 

Governor  was  too  wise  to  be  drawn  openly  into  gladiatorial 
relations  with  DeWitt  Clinton  at  this  time,  although,  as  it 
afterward  appeared,  Madison  and  Tompkins  even  then  had 
an  understanding  to  which  Clinton  was  by  no  means  a 
stranger. 

Clinton,  however,  continued  seemingly  on  good  terms  with 
Tompkins ;  and  to  disprove  the  attacks  of  the  Martling  Men 
he  introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  in  the  State  Senate,  to 
which  he  had  been  elected  in  the  preceding  April,  approving 
the  administration  of  President  Madison  and  pledging  sup- 
port to  Governor  Tompkins.  To  make  his  defence  the 
more  complete,  he  backed  the  resolutions  with  an  elaborately 
prepared  speech,  in  which  he  bitterly  assailed  the  Feder- 
alists, who,  he  declared,  thought  it  "better  to  reign  in  hell 
than  serve  in  heaven."  Clinton  may  be  excused  for  getting 
in  accord  with  his  party;  but  since  his  change  disclosed  an 
absence  of  principle,  it  was  bad  manners,  to  say  the  least, 
to  denounce,  with  Miltonic  quotation,  those  who  consistently 
held  to  the  views  formerly  entertained  by  himself.  Of  Clin- 
ton it  could  scarcely  be  said,  that  he  was  a  favourite  in  the 
Legislature.  He  frequently  allowed  his  fierce  indignation  to 
get  the  better  of  his  tongue.  His  sharp  sarcasms,  his  unspar- 
ing ridicule,  and  his  heedless  personalities,  sometimes  with- 
ered the  effect  of  his  oratory ;  yet  it  is  quite  certain  that  the 
fury  of  his  assaults  and  the  exuberance  of  his  anger  aroused 
the  keenest  interest,  and  that  when  the  Martling  Men  finally 
prevented  his  return  to  the  Legislature  his  absence  was 
generally  regretted. 

Clinton's  speech  did  not  convince  Federalists  that  em- 
bargo was  the  product  of  profound  statesmanship.  Abra- 
ham Van  Vechten,  the  leader  of  the  Federalists  in  the  Legis- 
lature, was  a  powerful  and  logical  reasoner,  and  an  orator 
of  singular  eloquence.  His  success  as  an  advocate  at  the 
bar  followed  him  to  the  Assembly,  and  in  every  debate  he 
proved  a  formidable  antagonist.  He  had  a  gift  of  sarcasm 
that  made  an  adversary  exceedingly  uncomfortable;  and  as 
he  shattered  the  reasoning  of  Clinton,  he  exposed  the  impe- 


1809]  VAN    VECHTEN    AND    CADY  169 

rious  and  domineering  trimmer  to  ridicule  and  jest.  Van 
Vechten  ranked  among  the  ablest  men  of  New  York.  His 
tall,  erect,  and  dignified  figure  was  well  known  throughout 
the  State,  and  although  he  did  not  assume  to  lead  his  party, 
the  Federalists  recognised  his  right  to  share  in  its  leader- 
ship. Governor  Jay  offered  him  a  place  on  the  Supreme 
bench ;  but  he  preferred  the  bar  and  the  brief  sessions  of  the 
Legislature. 

By  the  side  of  Van  Vechten  sat  Daniel  Cady,  at  that  time 
thirty-six  years  of  age,  already  renowned  as  a  lawyer,  the 
rival  of  Ogden  Hoffman  and  Marcus  T.  Reynolds,  and,  in  the 
estimation  of  his  contemporaries,  one  of  the  most  generous 
and  gifted  men  of  his  time.  Three  terms  in  the  Legislature 
and  one  in  Congress  measured,  until  his  election  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  in  1847,  his  career  in  public  life;  but  brief  as 
was  this  service,  his  great  ability  adorned  the  State  and 
strengthened  his  party.  His  distinguished  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth Cady  Stanton,  whose  achievements  covered  more  than 
half  of  the  last  century,  rex)resented  in  a  marked  degree 
his  gifts,  his  accomplishments,  and  the  sweetness  of  his 
nature. 

Under  the  lead  of  Van  Vechten  and  Cady,  the  Federalists 
tormented  DeWitt  Clinton  and  the  friends  of  embargo,  by 
contrasting  the  busy  wharves  in  1807,  covered  with  bales  of 
cotton,  barrels  of  flour,  and  hogsheads  of  sugar,  with  the 
stagnation  that  characterised  all  avenues  of  commerce  in 
1809.  Ropewalks  were  deserted,  sailmakers  idle,  draymen 
without  business,  and  sailors  without  bread.  If  England 
bled,  they  declared,  the  United  States  bled  faster.  An  ocean 
whitened  with  American  sails  had  been  turned  over  to  Brit- 
ish ships  which  were  absorbing  the  maritime  trade.  France 
showed  an  indifference  to  America's  commerce  and  England 
boasted  an  independence  of  America's  trade.  As  a  weapon 
of  coercion,  exclaimed  Cady,  embargo  has  been  a  failure — 
as  a  measure  of  defence  it  has  been  suicidal.  What  would 
happen  if  our  ships  were  suffered  to  go  to  Europe  and  the 
Indies?    Some  would  reach  Europe  and  find  a  market;  oth- 


170        TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT  CLINTON       [Chap.  xiv. 

ers  would  go  to  England,  obtain  a  license  to  sail  to  a  Baltic 
port,  and  then  sell  at  great  profit.  Out  of  a  hundred  ships, 
two  would  probably  be  seized  by  the  French.  Better  to 
lose  two  by  seizure  than  the  destruction  of  all  by  embargo. 

Obadiah  German  had  much  to  say  in  defence  of  the  justice 
and  prudence  of  the  embargo.  There  was  nothing  brilliant 
about  German;  but  ample  evidence  of  his  parliamentary 
ability  lines  the  pathway  of  his  public  career.  Without  elo- 
quence or  education,  he  had  the  full  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions and  an  intellectual  vigour  sufficient  to  back  them.  He 
came  to  the  Legislature  in  1798,  and,  in  1809,  very  unexpect- 
edly succeeded  Samuel  L.  Mitchill  as  United  States  senator. 
Later  he  served  one  term  as  speaker  of  the  Assembly.  Just 
now  he  was  the  recognised  leader  of  the  Republican  majority 
in  that  body,  and  in  his  wise,  uncouth  way  dealt  many  a  hard 
blow  with  telling  effect. 

Nathan  Sanford  also  assisted  in  repelling  the  assaults  of 
Cady  and  Van  Vechten.  Sanford  was  the  pet  of  the  Mart- 
ling  Men  and  the  enemy  of  DeWitt  Clinton.  He  had  been  ap- 
pointed United  States  attorney  upon  the  resignation  of  Ed- 
ward Livingston  in  1803,  holding  the  office  until  his  election 
to  the  United  States  Senate  to  succeed  Obadiah  German  in 
1815.  In  the  meantime  he  served  two  terms  in  the  Assembly, 
one  of  them  as  speaker,  and  three  terms  in  the  State  Senate. 
Afterward,  he  became  chancellor  for  two  or  three  years,  and 
then  took  another  term  as  United  States  senator.  His  activ- 
ity gave  him  strength,  and  his  loyalty  to  the  Martling  Men, 
now  known  as  Tammany,  supplied  him  with  backers  enough 
to  keep  him  continuously  in  office  for  thirty  years.  Despite 
his  titles  of  Senator  and  Chancellor,  however,  and  his  long 
public  service,  he  did  not  leave  a  memory  for  eloquence, 
scholarship,  or  for  great  ability;  though  he  was  a  ready 
talker  and  a  willing;  friend,  quick  to  catch  the  favouring 
breeze  and  ready  to  adopt  any  political  method  that  prom- 
ised success.  In  upholding  embargo,  Sanford  admitted  its 
seriousness,  but  emphasised  its  necessity.  He  recalled  how 
England   had  searched   our  ships,  impressed   our   seamen, 


1809]  NATHAN    SANFOED  171 

killed  our  citizens,  and  insulted  our  towns.  The  ocean,  he 
argued,  had  become  a  place  of  robbery  and  national  disgrace, 
since  Great  Britain,  by  its  orders  in  Council,  had  provoked 
France  into  promulgating  the  Berlin  Decree  of  November, 
1806,  and  the  Milan  Decree  of  December,  1807,  which  dena- 
tionalised any  ship  that  touched  an  English  port,  or  suffered 
an  English  search,  or  paid  an  English  tax — whether  it  en- 
tered a  French  port,  or  fell  into  the  power  of  a  French  priva- 
teer. Thus,  since  England  had  blockaded  one-half  of 
Europe  and  France  the  other  half,  he  thought  it  time  for  dig- 
nified retirement,  until  England  felt  the  need  of  additional 
supplies,  and  France  awoke  to  the  loss  of  its  luxuries. 

At  the  close  of  the  spirited  debate,  DeWitt  Clinton's  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  by  both  houses — in  the  Senate  without 
a  division;  in  the  Assembly  by  a  vote  of  sixty-one  to  forty- 
one.  But  almost  before  the  result  was  announced,  Ameri- 
can wheat  dropped  from  two  dollars  to  seventy  cents  a 
bushel,  turning  the  election  of  April,  1809,  into  a  Federalist 
victory.  It  was  a  great  surprise  to  Tompkins  and  his  party, 
whose  only  gleam  of  hope  grew  out  of  the  failure  of  the  Fed- 
eralists to  return  senators  from  the  middle  and  eastern  dis- 
tricts, thus  preventing,  as  they  assumed,  a  Federalist  ma- 
jority in  the  new  Council  of  Appointment  and  a  wholesale 
removal  of  Republican  officials.  But  the  Federalists  under- 
stood their  work.  After  welcoming  to  the  speakership  their 
old  friend,  William  North  of  Duansburgh,  who  had  served  in 
the  same  capacity  in  1795  and  again  in  1796,  the  Assembly 
elected  to  the  Council,  two  Federalists  and  two  Republicans, 
including  Robert  Williams  of  the  middle  district.  Williams 
had  been  a  Lewisite,  a  Burrite,  and  a  Clintonian.  With  the 
help  of  a  Federalist  governor  in  1799,  he  became  sheriff  of 
Dutchess  County,  and,  although  he  bore  the  reputation  of  a 
trimmer,  he  seems  to  have  concealed  the  real  baseness  of  his 
character  until  the  meeting  of  the  new  Council,  when  his  cast- 
ing vote  turned  out  of  office  every  Republican  in  the  State. 
By  this  treachery  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  of  whom 
we  shall  hear  much  hereafter,  became  surrogate  of  Dutchess 


172  TOMPKINS  AND  DeWITT   CLINTON    [Chap.  xiv. 

County ;  Jacob  Radcliflf,  the  great  chancery  lawyer,  mayor  of 
New  York;  Abraham  Van  Vechten,  attorney-general,  and 
Abraham  G.  Lansing,  treasurer  of  state.  From  the  moment 
of  his  apostacy  Robert  Williams,  classified  by  his  neighbours 
with  Judas  Iscariot  and  ignored  by  men  of  all  parties, 
passed  into  obscurity. 


I 


CHAPTER   XV 

TOMPKINS  DEFEATS  JONAS  PLATT 

1810 

Though  DeWitt  Clinton  again  lost  the  mayoralty  of  New 
York,  he  was  still  in  the  Senate ;  and  to  maintain  an  appear- 
ance of  friendship  with  the  Governor,  he  wrote  the  address 
to  the  people,  signed  by  the  Republican  members  of  the  Leg- 
islature, placing  Tompkins  in  the  race  for  re-election.  The 
Federalists,  encouraged  by  their  gains  in  April,  1809,  had 
with  confidence  nominated  Jonas  Piatt  for  governor,  and 
Nicholas  Fish  for  lieutenant-governor.  Fish  is  little  known 
to  the  present  generation  except  as  the  father  of  Hamilton 
Fish,  the  able  secretary  of  state  in  President  Grant's  Cabi- 
net; but  in  his  day  everybody  knew  of  him,  and  everybody 
admitted  his  capacity  and  patriotism.  His  distinguished 
gallantry  during  the  Revolution  won  him  the  confidence  of 
Washington  and  the  intimate  friendship  of  Hamilton,  after 
whom  he  named  his  illustrious  son.  For  many  years  he  was 
adjutant-general  of  the  State,  president  of  the  New  York 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  a  representative  Federalist. 
It  is  said  that  Aaron  Burr  felt  rebuked  in  his  presence,  be- 
cause he  recognised  in  him  those  high  qualities  of  noble  devo- 
tion to  principle  which  the  grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
well  knew  were  wanting  in  his  own  character.  Just  now 
Fish  was  fifty-two  years  old,  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Board  of  Aldermen,  and  an  inveterate  opponent  of  Republi- 
canism, chafing  under  DeWitt  Clinton's  dictatorship  in  the 
State  and  Tammany's  control  in  the  city. 

Jonas  Piatt  had  borne  an  important  part  in  propping  up 
falling  Federalism.   He  was  a  born  fighter.    Though  some- 

173 


174  TOMPKINS  DEFEATS  JONAS  PLATT    [Chap.  xv. 

what  uncouth  in  expression  and  unrefined  in  manner,  he  had 
won  for  himself  a  proud  position  at  the  bar  of  his  frontier 
home,  and  was  rapidly  writing  his  name  high  on  the  roll  of 
New  York  statesmen.  He  had  proved  his  popularity  by  car- 
rying his  senatorial  district  in  the  preceding  election;  and 
he  had  demonstrated  his  ability  as  a  debater  by  replying  to 
the  arguments  of  DeWitt  Clinton  with  a  power  that  comes 
only  from  wide  information  and  a  consciousness  of  being  in 
the  right.  He  could  not  be  turned  aside  from  the  real  issue. 
Whatever  or  whoever  had  provoked  the  British  Orders  in 
Council,  he  declared,  one  thing  was  certain,  those  orders 
could  not  have  driven  American  commerce  from  the  ocean 
had  not  the  embargo  established  Britsh  commerce  in  its 
place.  This  was  the  weak  point  in  the  policy  of  Jefferson, 
and  the  strong  point  in  the  argument  of  Jonas  Piatt.  Five 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  vessels,  aggregating  over  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  thousand  tons,  had  been  tied  up  in  New  York 
alone;  and  the  public  revenues  collected  at  its  custom 
house  had  dropped  from  four  and  a  half  millions  to  nothing. 
History  concedes  that  embargo,  since  it  required  a  much 
greater  sacrifice  at  home  than  it  caused  abroad,  utterly  failed 
as  a  weapon  for  coercing  Europe ;  and  with  redoubled  energy 
and  prodigious  effect,  Piatt  drove  this  argument  into  the 
friends  of  the  odious  and  profitless  measure,  until  the  Gov- 
ernor's party  in  the  election  of  1809  had  gone  down 
disastrously. 

To  Obadiah  German,  a  living  embodiment  of  the  Jeffer- 
sonian  spirit,  the  most  extravagant  arguments  in  support  of 
the  embargo  came  naturally  and  clearly.  To  a  man  of  De- 
Witt  Clinton's  high  order  of  intellect,  however,  it  must  have 
been  difficult,  in  the  presence  of  Jonas  Piatt's  logic,  backed 
as  it  was  by  an  unanswerable  array  of  facts,  to  believe  that 
the  arguments  in  favour  of  embargo  were  those  which  history 
would  approve.  As  if,  however,  to  establish  Piatt's  position, 
Congress,  in  the  midst  of  the  New  York  campaign,  voted  to 
remove  the  embargo,  and  to  establish  in  its  stead,  non-inter- 
course with  Great    Britain    and    France — thus    reopening 


1810]  A   LOSING   AKGUMENT  175 

trade  with  the  rest  of  Europe  and  indulging  those  merchants 
who  desired  to  take  the  risks  of  capture.  For  the  moment, 
this  was  a  great  blow  to  Clinton  and  a  great  victory  for 
Piatt,  giving  him  a  prestige  that  his  party  thought  entitled 
him  to  the  governorship. 

In  the  legislative  session  of  1810,  however,  Jonas  Piatt 
developed  neither  the  strength  nor  the  shrewdness  that  char- 
acterised his  conduct  on  the  stump  during  the  campaign  of 
1809.  William  Erskine,  the  British  minister,  a  son  of  the 
distinguished  Lord  Chancellor,  whose  attachment  to  Amer- 
ica was  strengthened  by  marriage,  had  negotiated  a  treaty 
with  the  United  States  limiting  the  life  of  the  Orders  in 
Council  to  June  10,  1809.  This  treaty  had  been  quickly  dis- 
avowed by  the  English  government,  and,  in  referring  to  it  in 
his  message,  Governor  Tompkins  accused  England  of  wil- 
fully refusing  to  fulfil  its  stipulations.  "With  Great  Britain 
an  arrangement  was  effected  in  April  last,"  wrote  the  Gover- 
nor, "which  diffused  a  lively  satisfaction  through  the  nation, 
and  presaged  a  speedy  restoration  of  good  understanding 
and  harmony  between  the  two  countries.  But  our  hopes 
were  blasted  by  an  unexpected  disavowal  of  the  agreement, 
and  an  unqualified  refusal  to  fulfil  its  stipulations  on  the 
part  of  England.  Since  the  recall  of  the  minister  who  nego- 
tiated the  arrangement,  nothing  has  occurred  to  brighten  the 
prospect  of  an  honourable  adjustment  of  our  differences.  On 
the  contrary,  instead  of  evincing  an  amicable  disposition  by 
substituting  other  acceptable  terms  of  accommodation  in 
lieu  of  the  disavowed  arrangement,  the  new  minister  has  per- 
sisted in  impeaching  the  veracity  of  our  Administration, 
which  a  sense  of  respect  for  themselves,  and  for  the  dignity 
of  the  nation  they  represent,  forbade  them  to  brook." 

There  was  nothing  in  this  statement  to  rebuke.  Young 
Erskine  had  been  displaced  by  an  English  minister  who  had 
acquired  the  reputation  of  being  an  edged-tool  against  neu- 
tral nations,  a  curiously  narrow,  hide-bound  politician,  whose 
language  was  as  insolent  as  his  manners  were  offensive.  The 
Governor's  reference,  therefore,  had  not  been  too  severe,  nor 


1Y6  TOMPKINS  DEFEATS  JONAS  PLATT    [Chap.  xv. 

had  his  statement  overleaped  the  truth ;  yet  Jonas  Piatt  at-  1 
tacked  it  with  great  asperity,  arraigning  the  national  ad- 
ministration and  charging  that  the  country  had  more  cause 
for  war  with  France  than  with  Great  Britain.  This  was 
both  unwise  and  untenable.  The  Governor  had  aimed  his 
criticism  at  France  as  well  as  at  England.  He  spoke  of  one 
as  controlling  the  destinies  of  the  European  continent,  of 
the  other  as  domineering  upon  the  ocean,  and  of  both  as  over- 
leaping ''the  settled  principles  of  public  law,  which  consti- 
tuted the  barriers  between  the  caprice,  the  avarice,  or  the 
tyranny  of  a  belligerent,  and  the  rights  and  independence  of  a 
neutral."  But  Jonas  Piatt,  betrayed  by  his  prejudices  J 
against  Jefiferson  and  France,  went  on  with  an  argument  " 
well  calculated  to  give  his  opponents  an  advantage.  His  lan- 
guage was  strong  and  clear,  his  sarcasm  pointed;  but  it  gave 
DeWitt  Clinton  the  opportunity  of  charging  Federalists 
with  taking  sides  with  the  British  against  their  own  country. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  the  Federalists,  as  a  national 
party,  were  willing  to  join  hands  with  England  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  their  country.  They  had  the  same  reasons  for 
disliking  England  that  animated  their  opponents.  But  their 
antipathy  to  Jacobins  and  to  Jefferson,  and  the  latter's  par- 
tiality for  France,  drove  them  into  sympathy  with  Great 
Britain's  struggle  against  Napoleon,  until  the  people  sus- 
pected them  of  too  great  fondness  for  English  institutions 
and  English  principles.  Several  events,  too,  seemed  to  jus- 
tify such  a  suspicion,  notably  the  adherence  of  British  Tories 
to  the  Federalist  party,  and  the  latter's  zeal  to  allay  hostile 
feelings  growing  out  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  To  such 
an  extent  had  this  sentimental  sympathy  been  carried,  that, 
in  the  summer  of  1805,  the  Federalists  of  Albany,  having  a 
majority  in  the  common  council,  foolishly  refused  to  allow 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  be  read  as  a  part  of  the 
exercises  in  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July.  Naturally, 
such  a  policy  quickly  aroused  every  inherited  and  cultivated 
prejudice  against  the  British,  strengthening  the  belief  that 
the  Federalists,  as  a  party,  were  willing  to  suppress  the  pa- 


1742-1810]  JOHN    TAYLOK  177 

triotic  utterances  of  their  own  countrymen  rather  than  injure 
the  feelings  of  America's  hereditary  foe. 

When  DeWitt  Clinton,  therefore,  charged  the  party  of 
Jonas  Piatt  with  taking  the  side  of  the  British  against  their 
own  country,  the  debate  revived  old  tales  of  cruelty  and 
massacre,  growing  out  of  England's  alliance  with  the  In- 
dians in  the  early  days  of  the  Revolution ;  and  it  gave  John 
Taylor  opportunity  to  recount  the  horrors  which  he  had  wit- 
nessed in  the  days  of  his  country's  extreme  peril.  Taylor 
was  sixty-eight  years  old.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  was  soon  to  be  lieu- 
tenant-governor for  nearly  ten  years  more.  Before  the  Revo- 
lutionary war,  he  served  in  the  E*rovincial  Congress;  and  in 
Arnold's  expedition  to  Canada,  in  1775,  he  had  superin- 
tended the  commissary  department,  contributing  to  the  com- 
fort of  the  shattered  remnant  who  stood  with  Montgomery 
on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  on  that  ill-fated  last  day  of 
the  year. 

Taylor  was  a  man  of  undoubted  integrity  and  great  politi- 
cal sagacity.  His  character  suffered,  perhaps,  because  a  fond- 
ness for  money  kept  growing  with  his  growing  years.  "For 
a  good  old  gentlemanly  vice,"  says  Byron,  "I  think  I  must 
take  up  with  avarice."  Taylor  did  not  wait  to  be  an  old  gen- 
tleman before  adopting  ''the  good  old  gentlemanly  vice,"  but 
it  did  not  seem  to  hurt  him  with  the  people,  for  he  kept  on 
getting  rich  and  getting  office.  He  was  formed  to  please. 
His  tall,  slender  form,  rising  above  the  heads  of  those  about 
him,  made  his  agreeable  manners  and  easy  conversation  the 
more  noticeable,  gaining  him  the  affection  of  men  while  chal- 
lenging their  admiration  for  his  ability. 

In  1760,  Taylor  had  followed  the  British  army  to  Oswego, 
and  there  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  Indian  language.  He 
knew  of  the  alliance  between  the  British  and  Indians  in 
1776,  and  had  witnessed  the  horrible  massacres  growing  out 
of  these  treaty  relations.  The  most  tragic  stories  of  Indian 
atrocities  begin  with  the  payment  of  bounties  by  the  British 
for  the  scalps  of  women  and  children,  and  for  the  capture  of 


178  TOMPKINS  DEFEATS  JONAS  PLATT    [Chap.  xr. 

men  and  boys  who  would  make  soldiers.  Often  guided  by 
Tories,  the  fierce  Mohawks  sought  out  the  solitary  farm- 
house, scalped  the  helpless,  and,  with  a  few  prisoners,  started 
back  on  their  lonely  return  journey  to  Canada,  hundreds  of 
miles  through  the  forest,  simply  to  receive  the  promised  re- 
ward of  a  few  Spanish  dollars  from  their  British  allies. 
When  DeWitt  Clinton,  therefore,  charged  the  Federalists 
with  loving  the  English  more  than  their  own  country,  John 
Taylor  won  the  Senate  by  recalling  Indian  atrocities  set  on 
foot  by  British  officers,  and  often  carried  out  with  the  assist- 
ance of  British  Tories,  now  members  of  the  Federalist  party. 
Daniel  Parrish,  a  senator  from  the  eastern  district,  hav- 
ing more  courage  than  eloquence,  came  to  Piatt's  support 
with  the  most  exact  and  honest  skill,  repelling  the  insinua- 
tions of  Clinton,  and  indignantly  denying  Taylor's  tactful 
argument.  But  when  Taylor,  pointing  his  long,  well-formed 
index  finger  at  the  eastern  senator,  expressed  surprise  and 
grief  to  hear  one  plead  the  English  cause  whose  father  had 
been  foully  murdered  by  an  Indian  while  under  British  pay 
and  British  orders,  Parrish  lost  his  temper  and  Piatt  his 
cause. 

It  was  a  sad  day  for  Piatt.  So  successfully  did  Taylor 
revive  the  old  Revolutionary  hatred  of  the  British  that  the 
Herkimer  statesman's  arraignment  of  Governor  Tompkins, 
offered  as  a  substitute  for  DeWitt  Clinton's  friendly  answer, 
was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  twenty-three  to  six.  Coming  as  it 
did  on  the  eve  of  the  gubernatorial  election  it  was  too  late  to 
retrieve  his  lost  position.  Moreover,  the  repeal  of  the  em- 
bargo had  materially  weakened  the  Federalists  and  corre- 
spondingly strengthened  the  Republicans,  since  the  com- 
merce of  New  York  quickly  revived,  giving  employment  to 
the  idle  and  bread  to  the  hungry.  The  conviction  deepened, 
also,  that  a  Republican  administration  was  sincerely  impar- 
tial in  sentiment  between  the  two  belligerents,  and  that  the 
jtresent  foreign  policy,  ineffective  as  it  might  be,  fitted  the 
emergency  better  than  a  bolder  one.  Added  to  this,  was  the 
keen  desire  of  the  Republicans  to  recover  the  offices  which 


1811]  THE    SPOILS    OF   VICTOEY  179 

had  been  lost  through  the  apostacy  of  Robert  Williams ;  and 
although  the  Federalists  struggled  like  drowning  men  to 
hold  their  ill-gotten  gains,  the  strong  anti-British  sentiment, 
backed  by  a  determination  to  approve  the  policy  of  Madison, 
swept  the  State,  re-electing  Governor  Tompkins  by  six  thou- 
sand majority^  and  putting  both  branches  of  the  Legislature 
in  control  of  the  Republicans.  Surely,  Jonas  Piatt  was  never 
to  be  governor. 

In  the  heated  temper  of  the  triumphant  party,  the  new 
Council  of  Appointment,  chosen  soon  after  the  Legislature 
convened  in  January,  1811,  began  removing  officials  with  a 
fierceness  that  in  our  day  would  have  brought  shame  and 
ruin  upon  any  administration.  It  was  a  Clinton  Council, 
and  only  Clintonians  took  office.  Jacob  Radcliff  again 
turned  over  the  New  York  mayoralty  to  DeWitt  Clinton; 
Abraham  Van  Vechten  gave  up  the  attorney-generalship  to 
Matthias  B.  Hildreth;  Daniel  Hale  surrendered  the  secre- 
taryship of  state  to  Elisha  Jenkins;  Theodore  V.  W. 
Graham  bowed  his  adieus  to  the  recordership  of  Albany  as 
John  Van  Ness  Yates  came  in;  and  James  O.  Hoffman,  Cad- 
wallader  D.  Colden,  and  John  W.  Mulligan,  as  recorder,  dis- 
trict attorney,  and  surrogate  of  New  York,  respectively,  has- 
tened to  make  way  for  their  successors.  As  soon  as  an  order 
could  reach  him,  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  surrogate  of  Dutchess 
County,  vacated  the  office  that  the  treachery  of  his  father-in- 
law  had  brought  him.  It  was  another  clean  sweep  through- 
out the  entire  State.  Even  Garrett  T.  Lansing,  because  he 
once  belonged  to  the  Lewisites,  found  the  petty  office  of  mas- 
ter in  chancery  catalogued  among  the  "spoils." 

*  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  43,094;  Jonas  Piatt,  36,484.— Civil  List,  State 
of  New  York    (1887),  p.  166. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

DeWITT   CLINTON   AND   TAMMANY 

1789-1811 

The  death  of  Lieutenant-Governor  Broome,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1810,  created  a  vacancy  which  the  Legislature  pro- 
vided should  be  filled  at  the  following  election  in  April. 
John  Broome  had  been  distinguished  since  the  olden  days 
when  the  cardinal  policy  of  New  York  was  the  union  of  the 
Colonies  in  a  general  congress.  He  had  belonged  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty-one  with  John  Jay,  to  the  Committee  of 
One  Hundred  with  James  Duane,  and  to  the  Committee  of 
Observation  with  Philip  Livingston.  After  the  Revolution, 
he  became  president  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  treasurer  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and,  in  1789,  had  stood  for  Con- 
gress against  James  Lawrence,  the  trusted  adjutant-general 
of  Washington.  Although  Broome's  overwhelming  defeat  for 
Congress  in  no  wise  reflected  upon  his  character  as  a  patriot 
and  representative  citizen,  it  kept  him  in  the  background 
until  the  Federalists  had  frittered  away  their  power  in  New 
York  City.  Then  he  came  to  the  front  again,  first  as  state 
senator,  and  afterward,  in  1804,  as  lieutenant-governor;  but 
he  never  reached  the  coveted  governorship.  In  that  day,  as 
in  this,  the  ofiSce  of  lieutenant-governor  was  not  necessarily 
a  stepping  stone  to  higher  preferment.  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt 
served  with  fidelity  for  eighteen  years  without  getting  the 
long  wished-for  promotion ;  Morgan  Lewis  jumped  over  Jere- 
miah Van  Rensselaer  in  1804 ;  and  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  was 
preferred  to  John  Broome  in  1807.  Indeed,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Enos  T.  Throop,  Hamilton  Fish,  David  B.  Hill,  and 
Frank  W.  Higgins,  none  of  the  worthy  men  who  have  pre- 

180 


1811]  THEEE  MAETLING  MEN  181 

sided  with  dignity  over  the  deliberations  of  the  State  Senate 
have  ever  been  elected  governor. 

DeWitt  Clinton  now  wished  to  succeed  Broome;  and  a 
large  majority  of  Republican  legislators  quickly  placed  him 
in  nomination.  Clinton  had  first  desired  to  return  to  Albany 
as  senator,  as  he  would  then  have  possessed  the  right  to  vote 
and  to  participate  in  debo.te.  But  the  Martling  Men,  who 
held  the  balance  of  power,  put  forward  Morgan  Lewis,  his 
bitterest  enemy.  It  was  a  clever  move  on  the  part  of  the 
ex-Governor.  Clinton  had  literally  driven  Lewis  from  the 
party,  and  for  three  years  his  name  remained  a  reminis- 
cence ;  but,  with  the  assistance  of  Tammany,  he  now  got  out 
of  obscurity  by  getting  onto  the  ticket  with  Governor  Tomp- 
kins. To  add,  too,  to  Clinton's  chagrin,  Tammany  also  put  up 
Nathan  Sanford  for  the  Assembly,  and  thus  closed  against 
him  the  door  of  the  Legislature.  But  to  carry  out  his  am- 
bitious scheme — of  mounting  to  the  Presidency  in  1812 — 
Clinton  needed  to  be  in  Albany  to  watch  his  enemies;  and, 
although  he  cared  little  for  the  lieutenant-governorship,  the 
possession  of  it  would  furnish  an  excuse  for  his  presence  at 
the  state  capital. 

The  announcement  of  DeWitt  Clinton's  nomination  raised 
the  most  earnest  outcries  among  the  Martling  Men.  They 
had  endeavoured  to  defeat  his  reappointment  to  the  maj^or- 
alty ;  but  their  wild  protests  had  fallen  upon  deaf  ears.  In- 
deed, the  hatred  of  Minthorne,  the  intriguing  genius  of 
Teunis  Wortman,  and  the  earnestness  of  Matthew  L.  Davis, 
seemed  only  to  have  been  agencies  to  prepare  the  way  for 
Clinton's  triumphant  restoration.  Now,  however,  these  ac- 
complished political  gladiators  proposed  to  give  battle  at  the 
polls,  and  if  their  influence  throughout  the  State  had  been 
as  potent  as  it  proved  within  the  wards  of  New  York  City, 
the  day  of  DeWitt  Clinton's  destiny  must  have  been  nearly 
over. 

Since  its  organisation  in  1789,  the  Society  of  St.  Tam- 
many had  been  an  influential  one.  It  was  founded  for  char- 
itable purposes;  its  membership  was  made  up  mostly  of  na- 


182  DeWITT   CLINTON  AND  TAMMANY    [Chap.  xvi. 

tive  Americans,  and  its  meetings  were  largely  social  in  their 
character. 

"There's  a  barrel  of  porter  at  Tammany  Hall, 

And  the  Buckt-ails  are  swigging-  it  all  the  night  long; 
In  the  time  of  my  boyhood  'twas  pleasant  to  call 
For  a  seat  and  cigar  'mid  the  jovial  throng." 

Thus  sang  Fitz-Greene  Halleck  of  the  social  customs  that 
continued  far  into  the  nineteenth  century.  Originally,  Fed- 
eralists and  anti-Federalists  found  a  welcome  around  Tam- 
many's council  fire;  and  its  bucktail  badge,  the  symbol  of 
liberty,  hung  from  the  hat  of  Clintonian  and  Hamiltonian 
alike.  But  toward  the  end  of  Washington's  second  adminis- 
tration the  society  became  thoroughly  partisan  and  thor- 
oughly anti-Federalist,  shifting  its  wigwam  to  the  historic 
^'Long  Room,"  at  the  tavern  of  Abraham  Martling,  a  favourite 
hostlery  which  the  Federalists  contemptuously  called  "the 
Pig-Pen."  Then  it  was,  that  Aaron  Burr  made  Tammany  a 
power  in  political  campaigns.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
its  grand  sachem,  or  any  sachem  at  all ;  nor  is  it  known  that 
he  ever  entered  its  wigwam  or  affiliated  as  a  member;  but  its 
leaders  were  his  satellites,  who  began  manufacturing  public 
opinion,  manipulating  primaries,  dictating  nominations,  and 
carrying  wards. 

Out  of  Burr's  candidacy  for  President  sprang  Tammany's 
long  and  bitter  warfare  against  DeWitt  Clinton.  The  quar- 
rel began  in  1802  when  Clinton  and  Cheetham  charged  Burr 
with  intriguing  to  beat  Jefferson ;  it  grew  in  bitterness  when 
Clinton  turned  Burr  and  the  Swartouts  out  of  the  director- 
ate of  the  Manhattan  Bank ;  nor  was  it  softened  after  the 
secret  compromise,  made  at  Dyde's  Hotel,  in  February,  1806. 
Indeed,  from  that  moment,  Tammany  seemed  the  more  de- 
termined to  harass  the  ambitious  Clinton;  and,  although 
his  agents,  as  late  as  1809,  sought  reconciliation,  the  society 
expelled  Cheetham  and  made  Clinton  an  object  of  detesta- 
tion. Cheetham,  who  died  in  1810,  did  not  live  to  wreak  full 
vengeance;  but  he  did  enough  to  arouse  a  shower  of  brick- 


I 


1811]  RICH  SALARY  AND  FEES  183 

bats  which  broke  the  windows  of  his  home  and  threatened 
the  demolition  of  the  American  Citizen. 

Though  Cheetham's  decease  relieved  Tammany  of  one  of 
its  earliest  and  most  vindictive  assailants,  the  political  death 
of  DeWitt  Clinton  would  have  been  more  helpful,  since  Clin- 
ton's opposition  proved  the  more  harmful.  As  mayor  he  lived 
like  a  prince  distributing  bounty  liberally  among  his  sup- 
porters. He  was  lavish  in  the  gift  of  lucrative  offices,  lavish 
in  the  loan  of  money,  and  lavish  in  contributions  to  char- 
ity. His  salary  and  fees  were  estimated  at  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  an  extravagant  sum  in  days  when  eight  hundred 
dollars  met  the  expense  of  an  average  family,  and  the  pos- 
sessor of  fifty  thousand  dollars  was  considered  a  rich  man. 
Besides,  his  wife  had  inherited  from  her  father,  Walter 
Franklin,  a  wealthy  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  an 
estate  valued  at  forty  thousand  dollars,  making  her  one  of 
the  richest  women  in  New  York. 

But  Clinton  had  more  than  rich  fees  and  a  wealthy  wife. 
The  foreign  element,  especially  the  Irish,  admired  him  be- 
cause, when  a  United  States  senator,  he  had  urged  and  se- 
cured a  reduction  of  the  period  of  naturalisation  from  four- 
teen years  to  five;  and  because  he  relieved  the  political  and 
financial  distress  of  their  countrymen,  by  aiding  the  repeal 
of  the  alien  and  sedition  laws.  For  a  score  of  years,  America 
had  invited  to  its  shores  every  fugitive  from  British  persecu- 
tion. But  the  heroes  of  'Ninety-eight,  who  had  escaped  the 
gibbet,  and  successfully  made  their  way  to  this  country 
through  the  cordon  of  English  frigates,  were  welcomed  with 
laws  even  more  offensive  than  the  coercion  acts  which  they 
had  left  behind.  The  last  rebellious  uprising  to  occur  in  Ire- 
land under  the  Georges,  had  sent  Thomas  Addis  Emmet, 
brother  of  the  famous  and  unfortunate  Irish  patriot,  a 
fugitive  to  the  land  of  larger  liberty.  To  receive  this  brother 
with  laws  that  might  send  him  back  to  death,  was  to  despise 
the  national  sentiment  of  Irishmen ;  and  the  men,  Clin- 
ton declared,  who  had  been  indisposed  or  unable  to 
take    account    of    the    force    of    a    national     sentiment, 


184  DeWITT   CLINTON   AND   TAMMANY    [Chap.  xvi. 

were  not  and  never  could  be  fit  to  carry  on  the  great  work 
of  government. 

Thoughtful,  however,  as  DeWitt  Clinton  had  been  of  the 
oppressed  in  other  lands,  he  lacked  what  Dean  Swift  said 
Bolingbroke  needed — "a  small  infusion  of  the  alderman.'^ 
If  he  thought  a  man  stupid  he  let  him  know  it.  To  those  who 
disagreed  with  him,  he  was  rude  and  overbearing.  All  of 
what  is  known  as  the  "politician's  art"  he  professed  to  de- 
spise; and  while  Tammany  organised  wards  into  districts, 
and  districts  into  blocks,  Clinton  pinned  his  faith  on  the  su- 
premacy of  intellect,  and  on  office-holding  friends.  The  day 
the  news  of  his  nomination  for  lieutenant-governor  reached 
New  York,  Tammany  publicly  charged  him  with  attempting 
*'to  establish  in  his  person  a  pernicious  family  aristocracy ;" 
with  making  complete  devotion  ''the  exclusive  test  of 
merit  and  the  only  passport  to  promotion;"  and  with  ex- 
cluding himself  from  the  Republican  party  by  "opposing  the 
election  of  President  Madison."  There  was  much  truth  in 
some  of  these  charges.  Clinton  had  quarrelled  with  Aaron 
Burr;  he  had  overthrown  Morgan  Lewis;  and  he  was  ready 
to  defeat  Daniel  D.  Tompkins.  Even  Cheetham  had  left  him 
some  months  before  his  death,  and  Richard  Riker,  who  acted 
as  second  in  the  duel  with  John  Swartout,  was  soon  to  ignore 
the  chilly  Mayor  when  he  passed.  The  estrangement 
of  these  friends  is  pathetic,  yet  one  gets  no  melancholy 
accounts  of  Clinton's  troubles.  The  great  clamour  of  Tam- 
many brought  no  darkening  clouds  into  his  life.  He  was 
soon  to  learn  that  Tammany,  heretofore  an  object  of  con- 
tempt, was  now  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with,  but  he  did  not 
show  any  qualms  of  uneasiness  even  if  he  felt  them. 

Tammany  bolted  Clinton's  nomination,  selecting  for  its 
candidate  Marinus  Willett,  its  most  available  member,  and 
most  brilliant  historic  character.  Before  and  during  the 
Revolution,  Willett  did  much  to  make  him  a  popular  hero. 
He  served  the  inelBficient  Abercrombie  in  his  unsuccessful  at- 
tack on  Ticonderoga  in  1758;  he  was  with  the  resolute  Brad- 
street  at  the  brilliant  charge  of  Fort  Frontenac ;  he  led  thej 


1740-1811]  MARINUS    WILLETT  185 

historic  sortie  at  Fort  Schuyler  on  the  7th  of  August,  1?77. 
Men  were  still  living  who  saw  his  furious  assault  upon  the 
camp  of  Johnson's  Greens,  so  sudden  and  sharp  that  the 
baronet  himself,  before  joining  the  flight  of  his  Indians  to 
the  depths  of  the  thick  forest,  did  not  have  time  to  put  on  his 
coat,  or  to  save  the  British  flag  and  the  personal  baggage  of 
Barry  St.  Leger.  The  tale  was  strange  enough  to  seem  in- 
credible to  minds  more  sober  than  those  of  the  Tammany 
braves,  who  listened  with  pride  to  the  achievements  of  their 
sachem.  With  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  and  an  iron  three- 
pounder,  Willett  had  fallen  so  unexpectedly  upon  the  Eng- 
lish and  Indians,  that  the  advance  guard,  panic-stricken, 
suddenly  disappeared — officers,  men,  and  savages — leaving 
twenty-one  wagon  loads  of  rich  spoil.  This  heroic  deed  was 
a  part  of  Willett's  stock  in  trade,  and,  although  he  was  w^ob- 
bly  in  his  politics,  the  people  could  not  forget  his  courage 
and  good  judgment  in  war.  But  Willett's  influence  was  con- 
fined to  the  wards  of  a  city.  The  rural  counties  believed  in 
New  York's  mayor  rather  than  in  New  York's  hero;  and 
when  the  votes  were  counted,  Clinton  had  a  safe  majority. 
He  had  fared  badly  in  New  York  City,  being  deprived  of 
more  than  half  his  votes  through  the  popular  candidacy  of 
Nicholas  Fish ;  but,  in  spite  of  Tammany,  he  was  able  to  go 
to  Albany,  and  to  begin  work  upon  a  scheme  which,  until 
then,  had  been  only  a  dream.  It  was  to  be  a  gigantic  strug- 
gle. Lewis  and  the  Livingstons  opposed  him,  Tammany  de- 
tested him,  Tompkins  was  jealous  of  him,  Spencer  deserted 
him ;  but  he  had  shown  he  knew  how  to  wait ;  and  when  wait- 
ing was  over,  he  showed  he  knew  how  to  act. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BANKS  AND   BRIBERY 

1791-1812 

During  the  early  years  of  the  last  century,  efforts  to  incor- 
porate banks  in  New  York  were  characterised  by  such  an 
utter  disregard  of  moral  methods,  that  the  period  was  long 
remembered  as  a  black  spot  in  the  history  of  the  State. 
Under  the  lead  of  Hamilton,  Congress  incorporated  the 
XTnited  States  Bank  in  1791;  and,  inspired  by  his  broad 
financial  views,  the  Legislature  chartered  the  Bank  of  New 
York  in  the  same  year,  the  Bank  of  Albany  in  1792,  and  the 
Bank  of  Columbia,  located  at  Hudson,  in  1793.  These  insti- 
tutions soon  fell  under  the  management  of  Federalists,  who 
believed  in  banks  and  were  ready  to  aid  in  their  establish- 
ment, so  long  as  they  remained  under  Federalist  control. 

Republicans,  on  the  other  hand,  disbelieved  in  banks. 
'They  opposed  the  United  States  Bank;  and  by  George  Clin- 
ton's casting  vote  defeated  an  extension  of  its  charter,  which 
expired  by  limitation  on  March  4,  1811.  To  them  a  bank 
was  a  combination  of  the  rich  against  the  poor,  a  moneyed 
corporation  whose  power  was  a  menace  to  free  institutions, 
and  whose  secret  machinations  were  to  be  dreaded.  At  the 
same  time.  Republican  leaders  recognised  the  political  neces- 
sity of  having  Republican  banks  to  offset  the  influence  of 
Federalist  banks,  and  in  order  to  overcome  the  deep  seated 
prejudice  of  their  party  and  to  defeat  the  opposition  of  Fed- 
eralists, inducements  were  offered  and  means  employed 
which  unscrupulous  men  quickly  turned  into  base  and 
shameless  bribery. 

In  his  partisan  zeal  Burr  began  the  practice  of  deception. 

186 


1799]  BUER'S   CLEVER  TRICK  187 

The  Republicans  needed  a  bank.  The  only  one  in  New  York 
City  was  controlled  by  the  Federalists,  who  also  controlled 
the  Legislature,  and  the  necessities  of  the  rising  party,  if  not 
his  own  financial  needs,  appealed  to  Burr's  clever  manage- 
ment. Under  the  cover  of  chartering  a  company  to  supply 
pure  water,  and  thus  avoid  a  return  of  the  yellow  fever 
which  had  so  recently  devastated  the  city,  he  asked  author- 
ity to  charter  the  Manhattan  Company,  with  a  capital  of  two 
million  dollars,  provided  "the  surplus  capital  might  be  em- 
ployed in  any  way  not  inconsistent  with  the  laws  and  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  of  New 
York."  The  people  remembered  the  terrible  yellow  fever 
scourge,  and  the  Legislature  considered  only  the  question  of 
relieving  the  danger  with  pure  and  wholesome  water;  and, 
although  the  large  capitalisation  aroused  suspicion  in  the 
Senate,  and  Chief  Justice  Lansing  called  it  "a  novel  experi- 
ment,"^ the  bill  passed.  Thus  the  Manhattan  Bank  came 
into  existence,  while  wells,  brackish  and  unwholesome,  con- 
tinued the  only  sufficient  source  of  water  supply. 

That  was  in  1799.  Four  jears  later,  the  Republicans  of 
Albany,  realising  the  importance  of  a  bank  and  the  necessity 
of  avoiding  the  opposition  of  their  own  party,  obtained  a 
charter  for  the  State  Bank,  by  selling  stock  to  Republican 
members  of  the  Legislature,  with  an  assurance  that  it  could 
be  resold  at  a  premium  as  soon  as  the  institution  had  an  ex- 
istence. There  was  a  ring  of  money  in  this  proposition.  Such 
an  investment  meant  a  gift  of  ten  or  twenty  dollars  on  each 
share,  and  immediately  members  clamoured,  intrigued,  and 
battled  for  stock.  The  very  boldness  of  the  proposition 
seemed  to  save  it  from  criticism.  Nothing  was  covered  up. 
To  put  the  stock  at  a  premium  there  must  be  a  bank ;  to  make 

^  "This,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Council,  as  a  novel  experiment,  the 
result  whereof,  as  to  its  influence  on  the  community,  must  be  merely 
speculative  and  uncertain,  peculiarly  requires  the  application  of  the 
policy  which  has  heretofore  uniformly  obtained — that  the  powers 
of  corporations  relative  to  their  money  operations,  should  be  of 
limited  instead  of  perpetual  duration." — Alfred  B.  Street,  New  York 
Council  of  Revision,  p.  423. 


188  BANKS  AND  BRIBEKY  [Chap.  xvii. 

a  bank  there  must  be  a  charter;  and  to  secure  a  charter  a 
majority  of  the  members  must  own  its  stock.  The  result 
was  inevitable. 

It  seems  incredible  in  our  day  that  such  corruption  could 
go  on  in  broad  daylight  without  a  challenge.  At  the  present 
time  a  legislator  could  not  carry  a  district  in  New  York  if  it 
were  known  that  his  vote  had  been  secured  by  such  ill-gotten 
gains.  Yet  the  methods  of  the  Republican  promoters  of  the 
State  Bank  seem  not  to  have  brought  a  blush  to  the  cheek 
of  the  youngest  legislator.  No  one  of  prominence  took  excep- 
tion to  it  save  Abraham  Van  Vechten,  and  he  was  less  con- 
cerned about  the  immorality  of  the  thing  than  the  competi- 
tion to  be  arrayed  against  the  Federalist  bank  in  Albany. 
Even  Erastus  Root,  then  just  entering  his  first  term  in  Con- 
gress, saw  nothing  in  the  transaction  to  shock  society's  sense 
of  propriety  or  to  break  the  loftiest  code  of  morality. 
"There  was  nothing  of  mystery  in  the  passage  of  the  bank," 
he  wrote.  "The  projectors  sought  to  push  it  forward  by 
spreading  the  stock  among  the  influential  Republicans  of  the 
State,  including  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  carry  it 
through  as  a  party  measure.  It  was  argued  by  the 
managers  of  the  scheme  that  the  stock  would  be  above  par 
in  order  to  induce  the  members  of  the  Legislature  to  go  into 
the  measure,  but  nothing  in  the  transaction  had  the  least 
semblance  of  a  corrupt  influence.  No  one  would  hesitate 
from  motives  of  delicacy,  to  oflfer  a  member,  nor  for  him  to 
take,  shares  in  a  bank  sooner  than  in  a  turnpike  or  in  an  old 
canal."^ 

One  can  hardly  imagine  Erastus  Root  serious  in  the  ex- 
pression of  such  a  monstrous  doctrine.  His  life  had  been 
pure  and  noble.  He  was  a  sincere  lover  of  his  country;  a 
statesman  of  high  purpose,  and  of  the  most  commanding  tal- 
ents. No  one  ever  accused  him  of  any  share  in  this  financial 
corruption.  Yet  a  more  Machiavellian  opinion  could  not  have 
been  uttered.     On  principle,  Republican  members  of  the  Leg- 

-  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1.  Ap- 
pendix, p.  583,  Note  J. 


1803]  UNCONDEMNED   GRAFT  189 

islature  opposed  banks,  and  that  principle  was  overcome  by 
profits;  in  other  words,  members  must  be  bought,  or  the 
charter  would  fail.  That  the  stock  did  go  above  par  is  evi- 
dent from  Root's  keen  desire  to  get  some  of  it.  As  an  influen- 
tial Republican,  he  was  allowed  to  subscribe  for  fifty  shares, 
but  when  he  called  for  it  the  papers  could  not  be  found.  The 
bank  was  not  a  bubble.  It  had  been  organised  and  its  stock 
issued,  but  its  hook  had  been  so  well  baited  that  the  leg- 
islators left  nothing  for  outsiders.  Subsequently  the  direc- 
tors sent  Root  a  certificate  for  eight  shares,  and  John  Lamb, 
an  assemblyman  from  Root's  home,  gave  up  eight  more;  but 
the  Delaware  congressman,  angry  because  deprived  of  his 
fifty  shares,  refused  to  accept  any.  "I  had  come  prepared 
to  take  the  fifty,"  he  wrote,  ''and  in  a  fit  of  more  spunk  than 
wisdom,  I  rejected  the  whole."^ 

Two  years  after,  in  1805,  the  Federalists  desired  to  char- 
ter the  Merchants'  Bank  of  New  York  City.  But  the  Legisla- 
ture, largely  Republican,  was  led  by  DeWitt  Clinton,  now  at 
the  zenith  of  his  power,  who  resented  its  establishment  be- 
cause it  must  become  a  competitor  of  the  Manhattan,  an 
institution  that  furnished  him  fat  dividends  and  large  influ- 
ence. Clinton  had  undoubtedly  acquired  a  reputation  for 
love  of  gain  as  well  as  of  power,  but  he  had  never  been 
charged,  like  John  Taylor,  with  avarice.  He  spent  with  a 
lavish  hand,  he  loaned  liberally  to  friends,  and  he  borrowed 
as  if  the  day  of  payment  was  never  to  come ;  yet  he  had  no 
disposition  to  help  opponents  of  a  bank  that  must  cripple 
his  control  and  diminish  his  profits.  In  this  contest,  too,  he 
had  the  active  support  of  Ambrose  Spencer,  who  fought  the 
proposed  charter  in  the  double  capacity  of  a  stockholder  in 
the  Manhattan  and  the  State,  and  a  member  of  the  Council 
of  Revision.  Three  banks,  with  five  millions  of  capital  and 
authority  to  issue  notes  and  create  debts  for  fifteen  millions 
more,  he  argued,  were  enough  for  one  city.  He  had  some- 
thing to  say  also  about  "an  alarming  decrease  of  specie," 

'Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  1.  Ap- 
pendix, p.  582,  Note  S. 


190  BANKS  AND  BKIBERY  tCHAP.  xvii. 

and  "an  influx  of  bills  of  credit/'  which  ''tended  to  further 
banish  the  precious  metals  from  circulation."* 

Governor  Lewis  would  have  been  wiser  had  he  joined 
Clinton  and  Spencer  in  their  opposition.  But  Lewis  would 
not  play  second  fiddle  in  any  game  with  Clinton,  and  so  when 
he  discovered  that  Clinton  opposed  the  bank,  he  yielded 
party  principle  to  personal  prejudice  and  favoured  it.  With 
this  powerful  recruit  the  managers  still  lacked  a  majority, 
and,  to  influence  others,  Ebenezer  Purdy,  a  Republican  sena- 
tor, employed  his  gifts  in  ofl'ering  his  legislative  associates 
large  rewards  and  rich  benefits.  As  a  statesman,  Purdy 
seems  to  have  been  without  any  guiding  principle,  or  any 
principle  at  all.  He  toiled  and  pushed  and  climbed,  until  he 
had  landed  in  the  Senate ;  then  he  pulled  and  bargained  and 
promised  until  he  became  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Ap- 
pointment, and,  later,  chairman  of  the  legislative  caucus 
that  nominated  Chancellor  Lansing  for  governor;  but  not 
until  the  Merchants'  Bank  wanted  a  charter  did  Purdy  find 
an  opportunity  to  develop  those  aldermanic  qualifications 
which  distinguish  him  in  history.  He  was  getting  on  very 
well  until  he  had  the  misfortune  to  confide  his  secret  to 
Stephen  Thorn,  a  senator  from  the  eastern  district,  and 
Obadiah  German,  the  well-known  assemblyman  from  Che- 
nango, whose  views  were  not  as  liberal  as  Erastus  Root's. 
"No  one  would  hesitate,  from  motives  of  delicacy,  to  offer  a 
member  shares  in  a  bank,"  said  Root.  This  was  Purdy's 
view  also;  but  Thorn  and  German  thought  such  an  offer 
had  the  "semblance  of  a  corrupt  influence,"  and  they  made 
aflSdavits  that  Purdy  had  attempted  to  corrupt  their  votes. 
According  to  these  affidavits  the  Senator  promised  German 
fifty  shares  of  stock,  with  a  profit  of  twenty  dollars  a  share, 
and  Thorn  thirty  shares,  with  a  profit  of  twenty-five  dollars 
a  share.    Similar  affidavits  were  made  by  other  members. 

Erastus  Root  took  exception  to  such  transactions.  "The 
Merchants'  Bank  in  1S05,"  he  says,  "had  powerful  opposition 
to  encounter,  and,  of  course,  made  use  of  powerful  means  to 
*  Alfred  B.  Street,  Neiv  Torlc  Council  of  Revision,  p.  427. 


1812]  THE   PKOMISE    OF   PROFITS  191 

accomplish  the  object.  Then  the  shares  and  the  assurance  be- 
came down-right  corruption."^  But  it  is  not  easy  to  observe 
the  difference  between  the  methods  of  the  State  Bank  man- 
agers, which  Root  affirms  "had  not  the  least  semblance  of  a 
corrupt  influence,"  and  those  of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  which 
he  pronounces  "down-right  corruption,"  except  that  the  one 
was  open  bribery  and  the  other  secret  bribery.  In  either 
case,  votes  were  obtained  by  the  promise  of  profits.  It  is 
likely  the  methods  of  the  Merchants'  would  have  escaped  no- 
tice, as  did  those  of  the  State  Bank,  had  not  Clinton,  deter- 
mined to  beat  it,  complained  of  Purdy's  bribery.  The  latter 
resigned  to  escape  expulsion,  but  the  bank  received  its  char- 
ter. This  aroused  the  public  conscience,  and  in  the  following 
winter  the  Legislature  provided  suitable  punishment  for  the 
crime  of  bribery. 

It  was  not  until  1812  that  any  one  had  the  hardihood  to 
suggest  another  bank.  Then  the  Federalists  sought  a  charter 
for  the  Bank  of  America,  with  a  capital  of  six  millions,  to 
be  located  in  New  York  City.  The  applicants  proposed  to 
pay  the  school  fund  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  the  lit- 
erature fund  one  hundred  thousand,  and  the  State  one  hun- 
dred thousand,  provided  no  other  bank  be  chartered  for 
twenty  years.  In  addition  to  this  extravagant  bonus,  its 
managers  agreed  to  loan  the  State  one  million  dollars  at  five 
per  cent,  for  the  construction  of  canals,  and  one  million  to 
farmers  at  six  per  cent,  for  the  improvement  of  their  real  es- 
tate. This  bold  and  liberal  proposal  recalls  John  Law's 
South  Sea  Bubble  of  the  century  before;  for,  although  the 
Bank  of  America  sought  no  monopoly  and  promised  the  pay- 
ment of  no  national  debt,  it  did  seem  to  be  aiming  its  flight 
above  the  clouds,  since,  counting  the  Manhattan  at  two,  the 
united  capital  of  the  banks  of  the  State  did  not  exceed  five 
millions.  The  promoters,  anticipating  an  outcry  against  the 
incorporation  of  such  a  gigantic  institution,  employed  David 
Thomas  of  Washington  and  Solomon  South  wick  of  Albany 

'•  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  Tori;  Vol.  2.  Ap- 
pendix, p.  582. 


192  BANKS  AND  BRIBEKY  [Chap.  xvii. 

to  visit  members  of  the  Legislature  at  their  homes  with  the 
hope  of  enlisting  their  active  support. 

It  is  doubtful  if  two  men  better  equipped  to  supply  the 
necessary  legislative  majority  could  have  been  found  in  the 
State.  Both  were  stalwart  Republicans,  possessing  the  con- 
fidence of  DeWitt  Clinton  and  an  extensive  acquaintance 
among  local  party  managers.  Thomas  had  caution  and  rare 
sagacity.  Indeed,  his  service  of  four  years  in  the  Legislature 
and  eight  years  in  Congress  had  added  to  his  political  gifts 
such  shrewdness  and  craft  that  he  did  not  scruple,  on  occa- 
sion, to  postpone  or  hasten  an  event,  even  though  such  ar- 
rangement was  made  at  the  expense  of  some  one  else.  This 
characteristic  had  manifested  itself  in  the  removal  of  Abra- 
ham G.  Lansing  as  treasurer  of  state.  The  Chancellor's 
brother,  by  long  service,  had  won  the  confidence  of  the  people 
as  a  keeper  of  the  State's  money,  and,  although  his  family 
had  followed  the  fortunes  of  Governor  Lewis,  it  did  not 
occur  to  the  Legislature  to  dispossess  him  of  his  office  until 
David  Thomas  wanted  a  position.  Then,  the  silent,  crafty 
Washingtonian  developed  so  artfully  the  iniquity  of  Lan- 
sing's political  perfidy  that  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  of- 
fice for  himself.  It  was  because  of  this  craftiness,  this  un- 
scrupulous use  of  every  weapon  of  political  warfare,  that 
the  bank  hired  him.  His  gifts,  his  schemes,  his  faults,  his 
vices,  were  alike  useful. 

Solomon  Southwick  belonged  to  a  different  type.  He 
lacked  the  caution  of  Thomas,  but  nature  had  given  him  the 
appearance  and  manners  which  well  fitted  him  for  the  task 
of  attracting  those  who  came  within  the  range  of  his  influ- 
ence. He  was  singularly  handsome  and  graceful.  No 
stranger  came  near  him  without  feeling  an  instant  desire 
to  know  him.  He  was  all  the  more  attractive  because 
there  seemed  to  be  nothing  artificial  or  made  up  about  him. 
He  had  his  intimates,  but  with  an  unstudied  and  informal 
dignity,  he  was  hail-fellow  with  every  one,  keeping  none  at 
a  distance,  and  concealing  his  real  feelings  behind  no  mask 
of  conventionalism.    It  was  said  of  him  at  this  time  that  he 


1812]  SOLOMON   SOUTHWICK  193 

knew  more  men  personally  than  any  other  citizen  in  the 
State.  He  had  been  four  times  elected  clerk  of  the  Assembly, 
he  had  served  as  sheriff  of  his  county,  and  he  was  now  sole 
editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Albany  Register,  the  leading 
and  most  influential  Republican  paper.  To  ability  as  a 
writer  he  also  added  eloquence  of  speech.  Southwick  could 
not  be  called  a  great  orator,  but  he  had  grace,  wit,  imagina- 
tion, and  a  beauty  of  style  that  appealed  to  the  hearts  and 
sympathies  of  his  hearers.  In  the  conduct  of  his  business 
affairs,  nobody  could  be  more  careful,  more  methodical,  more 
precise.  Indeed,  we  may  take  it  for  granted,  without  any 
biographical  information  on  the  subject,  that  in  1811  Solo- 
mon Southwick  was  on  the  road  to  the  highest  honours  in  the 
gift  of  his  State, 

But  his  connection  with  the  Bank  of  America  covered 
him  with  suspicion  from  which  he  never  entirely  recovered. 
It  must  have  occurred  to  him,  when  accepting  the  bank's 
retainer,  that  his  opposition  to  the  Merchants'  Bank  would 
be  recalled  to  the  injury  of  his  consistency.  In  1805,  he  had 
boldly  declared  in  the  Register  that  any  Republican  who 
voted  for  a  Federalist  bank  was  justly  censurable;  in  1812, 
be  so  far  changed  his  mind  as  to  hold  that  any  one  "who  sup- 
ports or  opposes  a  bank  upon  the  grounds  of  Federalism  or 
Eepublicanism,  is  either  deceiver  or  deceived,  and  will  not 
be  listened  to  by  any  man  of  sense  or  experience."  A  little 
later  in  the  contest,  when  partisan  fury  and  public  corrup- 
tion were  the  opposing  forces,  several  sub-agents  of  the  bank 
were  indicted  for  bribery,  among  them  a  former  clergy- 
man who  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary.  Then  it  was  whis- 
pered that  David  Thomas,  following  the  example  of  Purdy 
in  1805,  had  scattered  his  purchase-money  everywhere,  sow- 
ing with  the  sack  and  not  with  the  hand.  Finally,  Casper  M. 
Eouse,  a  senator  from  Chenango,  accused  Thomas  of  offering 
him  ten  shares  of  stock,  with  a  profit  of  one  thousand  dol- 
lars, adding  that  Thomas  had  told  him  to  call  upon  South- 
wick in  Albany.  Southwick  had  evidently  fallen  into  bad 
company,  and,  although  Rouse  disclaimed  having  seen  the 


194  BANKS  AND  BRIBERY  [Chap.  xvn. 

Albany  journalist,  a  week  or  two  later  Alexander  Sheldon, 
speaker  of  the  Assembly,  made  a  charge  against  Southwiek. 
similar  to  Rouse's  accusation  against  Thomas.  Both  men 
were  indicted,  but  the  jury  preferred  accepting  the  denial  of 
the  defendants,  since  it  appeared  that  Rouse  and  Sheldon, 
instead  of  treating  the  accused  as  bribers  and  men  unworthy 
of  confidence,  had  maintained  their  former  relations  with 
them,  subsequently  voting  for  Thomas  for  treasurer  of  state, 
and  for  Southwiek  as  regent  of  the  State  University.  As  pos- 
itive proof  of  bribery  was  limited  in  each  case  to  the  prose- 
cuting witness,  we  may  very  well  accept  the  defendants'  re- 
peated declarations  of  their  own  integrity  and  uprightness, 
although  the  conditions  surrounding  them  were  too  peculiar 
not  to  leave  a  stigma  upon  their  memory. 

These  charges  of  crime,  added  to  the  bank's  possession  of 
a  solid  majority  in  both  branches  of  the  Legislature,  aroused 
the  opposition  into  a  storm  of  indignation  and  resentment. 
Governor  Tompkins  had  anticipated  its  coming,  and  in  a 
long,  laboured  message,  warned  members  to  beware  of  the 
methods  of  bank  managers.  Such  institutions,  he  declared, 
''facilitate  forgeries,  drain  the  country  of  specie,  discourage 
agriculture,  swallow  up  the  property  of  insolvents  to  the 
injury  of  other  creditors,  tend  to  the  subversion  of  govern- 
ment by  vesting  in  the  hands  of  the  wealthy  and  aristocratic 
classes  powerful  engines  to  corrupt  and  subdue  republican 
notions,  relieve  the  wealthy  stockholder  from  an  equal  share 
of  contribution  to  the  public  service,  and  proportionally  en- 
hance the  tax  on  the  hard  earnings  of  the  farmer,  mechanic 
and  labourer."  He  spoke  of  the  "intrigue  and  hollow  pre- 
tences" of  applicants,  insisting  that  the  gratification  of  poli- 
ticians ought  not  to  govern  them,  nor  the  "selfish  and  demor- 
alising distribution  of  the  stock."  "Nor  ought  we  to  be  un- 
mindful," he  continued,  "that  the  prominent  men  who  seek 
the  incorporation  of  new  banks,  are  the  very  same  men  who 
have  deeply  participated  in  the  original  stock  of  most  of  th© 
previously  established  banks.  Having  disposed  of  that  stock 
at  a  lucrative  advance,  and  their  avidity  being  sharpened  by 


1812]  SPENCER'S   BANK-HOLDINGS  195 

repeated  gratification,  they  become  more  importunate  and 
vehement  in  every  fresh  attemi^t  to  obtain  an  opportunity  of 
renewing  their  speculations."  As  if  this  were  not  reason 
enough,  he  exhorted  them  not  to  be  deceived  by  the  apparent 
unanimity  of  sentiment  about  the  capital,  since  it  *'is  no  real 
indication  of  the  sentiments  of  the  community  at  large,"  but 
so  to  legislate  as  "to  retain  and  confirm  public  confidence, 
not  only  in  the  wisdom,  but  also  in  the  unbending  indepen- 
dence and  unsullied  integrity  of  the  Legislature."^ 

The  Governor's  arguments  were  supplemented  by  others 
from  Ambrose  Spencer,  whose  bank  holdings  seemed  more 
likely  than  ever  to  suffer  if  this  gigantic  combination  suc- 
ceeded. Spencer's  opposition  to  the  Merchants'  Bank  in  1805 
had  been  earnest,  but  now  his  whole  soul  was  aflame.  To 
counteract  the  influence  of  Southwick's  Register,  he  estab- 
lished the  Albany  Repuhlican,  which  ceased  to  exist  at  the 
«nd  of  the  campaign,  but  which,  during  its  brief  life,  struck 
at  every  head  that  favoured  the  bank.  Its  editorials,  follow- 
ing the  line  of  his  objections  in  the  Council  of  Revision, 
lifted  into  prominence  the  injurious  effect  likely  to  flow  from 
such  an  alarming  extension  of  banking  capital  at  a  time 
when  foreign  commerce  was  stagnant,  and  when  the  Ameri- 
can nation  was  on  the  eve  of  a  war  in  defence  of  its  com- 
mercial rights.  This  was  mixed  with  a  stronger  personal 
refrain,  discovering  the  danger  to  his  bank-holdings  and  re- 
vealing the  intensity  of  a  nature  not  yet  inured  to  defeat.  A 
l)ank  controlling  three  times  as  much  capital  as  any  other, 
he  argued,  with  unlimited  power  to  establish  branches 
"throughout  the  State,  must  be  a  constant  menace  to  minor 
institutions,  which  were  established  under  the  confidence  of 
governmental  protection  and  upon  the  legislative  faith  that 
no  further  act  should  impair  or  destroy  their  security.  "A 
power  thus  unlimited,"  he  declared,  "may  be  exercised  not 
only  to  prejudice  the  interests,  but  to  control  the  operations, 
destroy  the  independence,  and  impair  the  security  of  every 
tank  north  of  the  city  of  New  York.  A  bill  thus  improvisory 
'  Governors^  Speeches,  January  28,  1812,  pp.  115-8. 


196  BANKS  AND  BRIBERY  [Chap.  xvn. 

and  alarming,  giving  undefined  and  unnecessary  powers,  and 
leaving  the  execution  of  those  powers  to  a  few  individuals, 
would  materially  weaken  the  confidence  of  the  community  in 
the  justice,  wisdom,  and  foresight  of  the  Legislature."^ 

With  Tompkins  and  Spencer  stood  John  Taylor,  whose 
fear  for  his  stock  in  the  State  Bank,  of  which  he  was  presi- 
dent, made  his  opposition  more  conspicuous  than  it  ap- 
peared in  1805,  when  he  assaulted  Purdy,  knocking  him  down 
as  he  left  the  senate  chamber;  but  in  this  contest,  he  did 
not  strike  or  threaten.  He  moved  among  his  associates  in  the 
Senate  with  the  grace  of  a  younger  man,  his  tall,  spare  form 
bending  like  a  wind-swept  tree  as  he  reasoned  and  coaxed. 
In  the  same  group  of  zealous  opponents  belonged  Erastus 
Root,  who  had  just  entered  the  Senate,  and  whose  speech 
against  the  Bank  of  America  was  distinguished  for  its  sup- 
pressed passion  and  its  stern  severity.  He  had  waked  up, 
at  last,  to  the  scandalous  barter  in  bank  charters. 

There  was,  however,  one  Republican  in  Albany  whose 
course  excited  more  serious  censure  than  was  meted  out  to 
all  others.  At  a  moment  when  the  methods  of  bank  managers 
aroused  the  most  bitter  hostility  of  his  closest  political 
allies,  DeWitt  Clinton  became  conspicuous  by  his  silence. 
At  heart  he  opposed  the  Bank  of  America  as  bitterly  as  Am- 
brose Spencer  and  for  the  same  reasons ;  nor  did  he  recognise 
any  difference  in  the  conditions  surrounding  it  and  those 
which  existed  in  1805  when  he  drove  Ebenezer  Purdy  from 
the  Senate;  but,  consumed  with  a  desire  to  get  a  legislative 
indorsement  for  President,  before  Madison  secured  a  con- 
gressional nomination,  he  refused  to  take  sides,  since  the 
bank  people,  who  dominated  the  Legislature,  refused  such  an 
indorsement  until  the  passage  of  their  charter.  In  vain  did 
Spencer  threaten  and  Taylor  plead.  He  would  vote,  Clinton 
said,  against  the  bank  if  opportunity  presented,  but  he 
would  not  be  drawn  into  the  bitter  contest;  he  would  not 
denounce  Southwick;  he  would  not  judge  Thomas;  he  would 
not  even  venture  to  criticise  the  bank.  For  fourteen  years 
^  Alfred  B.  Street,  "Neio  York  Council  of  Revision,  p.  432. 


1812]  DEATH   or   GEORGE   CLINTON  197 

Clinton  and  Spencer  had  been  fast  political  friends;  but 
now,  at  the  supreme  moment  of  Clinton's  ambition,  these 
brothers-in-law  were  to  fall  under  the  guidance  of  different 
stars. 

Governor  Tompkins,  whose  desire  to  enter  the  White 
House  no  longer  veiled  itself  as  a  secret,  understood  the  pur- 
pose and  importance  of  Clinton's  silence,  and  to  give  Presi- 
dent Madison  an  advantage,  he  used  a  prerogative,  only  once 
exercised  under  the  Constitution  of  1777,  to  prorogue  the 
Legislature  for  sixty  days.  Ostensibly  he  did  it  to  defeat  the 
bank;  in  reality  he  desired  the  defeat  of  Clinton.  It  is  not 
easy  to  appreciate  the  wild  excitement  that  followed  the 
Governor's  act.  It  recalled  the  days  of  the  provincial  gover- 
nors, when  England's  hand  rested  heavily  upon  the  liberties 
of  the  people;  and  the  friends  of  the  bank  joined  in  bitter 
denunciation  of  such  a  despotic  use  of  power.  Meantime, 
a  congressional  caucus  renominated  Madison,  But  what- 
ever the  forced  adjournment  did  for  Clinton,  it  in  no  wise 
injured  the  bank,  which  was  chartered  as  soon  as  the  Leg- 
islature reassembled  on  May  21. 

While  the  Bank  of  America  was  engrossing  the  attention 
of  the  Legislature  and  the  nomination  of  a  presidential  can- 
didate convulsed  Congress,  George  Clinton  closed  his  distin- 
guished career  at  Washington  on  the  20th  of  April,  1812.  If 
he  left  behind  him  a  memory  of  long  service  which  had  been 
lived  to  his  own  advantage,  it  was  by  no  means  lived  to 
the  disadvantage  of  his  country  or  his  State.  He  did  much 
for  both.  Perhaps  he  was  better  fitted  for  an  instrument  of 
revolution  than  a  governor  of  peace,  but  the  influence  which 
he  exercised  upon  his  time  A\as  prodigious.  In  the  two  great 
events  of  his  life — the  revolt  of  the  Colonies  and  the  adoption 
of  a  Federal  Constitution — he  undoubtedly  swayed  the  minds 
of  his  countrymen  to  a  degree  unequalled  among  those  con- 
temporaries who  favoured  independence  and  state  supremacy. 
He  lacked  the  genius  of  Hamilton,  the  scholarly,  refined  in- 
tegrity of  Jay,  and  the  statesmanship  of  both ;  but  he  was  by 
odds  the  strongest,  ablest,  and  most  astute  man  of  his  party 


198  BANKS  AND  BEIBEKY  [Chap.  xvii. 

in  the  State.  Jay  and  Hamilton  looked  into  the  future, 
•Clinton  saw  only  the  present.  The  former  possessed  a  love 
for  humanity  and  a  longing  for  progress  which  encouraged 
them  to  work  out  a  national  existence,  broad  enough  and 
^strong  enough  to  satisfy  the  ambition  of  a  great  nation  a 
century  after  its  birch;  Clinton  was  satisfied  to  conserve 
what  he  had,  unmoved  by  the  great  possibilities  even  then 
indistinctly  outlined  to  the  eye  of  the  statesman  whose  vision 
was  fixed  intently  upon  an  undivided  America.  But  Clin- 
ton wisely  conserved  what  was  given  to  his  keeping.  As  he 
grew  older  he  grew  more  tolerant  and  humane,  substituting 
imprisonment  for  the  death  penalty,  and  recommending  a 
complete  revision  of  the  criminal  laws.  His  administration, 
too,  saw  the  earliest  attempts  made  in  a  systematic  way  to- 
ward the  spread  of  education  among  the  multitudes,  his 
message  to  the  Legislature  of  1795  urging  a  generous  appro- 
priation to  common  schools.  This  was  the  first  suggestion  of 
state  aid.  Colleges  and  seminaries  had  been  remembered, 
but  schools  for  the  common  people  waited  until  Clinton  had 
been  governor  for  eighteen  years. 


r* 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
CLINTON  AND   THE   PRESIDENCY 
1812 

For  many  years  DeWitt  Clinton  had  had  aspirations  to 
become  a  candidate  for  President.  He  entered  the  United 
States  Senate  in  1802  with  such  an  ambition;  he  became 
mayor  of  New  York  in  1803  with  this  end  in  view;  he  sought 
the  lieutenant-governorship  in  1811  for  no  other  purpose; 
and,  although  he  had  never  taken  a  managing  step  in  that 
direction,  looking  cautiously  into  the  future,  he  saw  his  way 
and  only  waited  for  the  passing  of  the  Vice  President.  De- 
Witt  Clinton,  whatever  his  defects  of  character  and  however 
lacking  he  may  have  been  in  an  exalted  sense  of  political 
principle,  appears  to  have  been  sincere  in  his  anxiety  to  ele- 
vate his  uncle  to  the  presidential  chair.  During  Jefferson's 
administration  his  efforts  seem  never  to  have  been  inter- 
mitted, and  only  when  the  infirmities  of  advanced  age  ad- 
monished him  that  George  Clinton's  life  and  career  were 
nearly  at  an  end,  did  his  mind  and  heart,  acquiescing  in  the 
appropriation  of  his  relative's  mantle,  seize  the  first  oppor- 
tunity of  satisfying  his  unbounded  ambition. 

The  opening  presented  in  the  spring  of  1812  was  not  an 
unattractive  one.  A  new  party,  controlled  by  a  remarkable 
coterie  of  brilliant  young  men  from  the  South,  whose  shib- 
boleth was  war  with  England,  had  sprung  up  in  Congress, 
and,  by  sheer  force  of  will  and  intellect,  had  dragged  to  the 
support  of  its  policies  the  larger  part  of  the  Republican 
majority.^    President  Madison  was  thoroughly  in  sympathy 

^  Of  ninety-eight  senators  and  representatives  who  voted,  on  June 
18,  1812,  for  a  declaration  of  war  against  England,  seventy-six,  or 
four  less  than  a  majority,  resided  south  of  the  Delaware.  No  North- 

199 


200  CLINTON  AND  THE  PRESIDENCY      Chap,  xvrii. 

with  these  members.  He  thought  war  should  be  declared 
before  Congress  adjourned,  and,  to  hasten  its  coming,  he  had 
recommended  an  embargo  for  sixty  days.  "For  my  own 
part,"  he  wrote  Jefferson,  "1  look  upon  a  short  embargo  as 
a  step  to  immediate  war,  and  I  wait  only  for  the  Senate  to 
make  the  declaration."^  This  did  not  sound  like  a  peace 
voice;  yet  the  anti-English  party  felt  little  cordiality  for 
him.  His  abilities,  as  the  event  amply  proved,  were  not 
those  likely  to  wage  a  successful  war.  He  was  regarded  as 
a  timid  man,  incapable  of  a  burst  of  passion  or  a  bold  act. 
In  place  of  resolute  opinion  he  courted  argument;  with  an 
inclination  to  be  peevish  and  fretful,  he  was  at  times  arro- 
gantly pertinacious.  Although  his  health,  moreover,  was 
delicate  and  he  looked  worn  and  feeble,  he  exhibited  no  con- 
sciousness of  needing  support,  declining  to  reconstruct  his 
Cabinet  that  abler  men  might  lend  the  assistance,  his  own 
lack  of  energy  demanded.  As  time  went  on  Republicans 
would  gladly  have  exchanged  him  for  a  stronger  leader,  one 
better  fitted  by  character  and  temperament  to  select  the  men 
and  find  a  way  for  a  speedy  victory.  It  was  no  less  plain  that 
the  conservatives  thoroughly  disliked  him,  and  if  they  could 
have  wrought  a  change  without  disrupting  the  party,  it 
would  have  suited  their  spirit  and  temper  to  have  openly  op- 
posed his  renomination. 

DeWitt  Clinton  understood  the  situation,  and  his  friends 
pointed  with  confidence  to  his  well  known  character  for  firm- 
ness and  nerve.  Of  Clinton,  it  may  be  justly  said,  that  he 
seems  most  attractive,  not  as  a  politician,  not  as  a  mayor  so- 
licitous for  the  good  government  of  a  growing  city,  not  as  a 
successful  promoter  of  the  canal,  but  as  a  rugged,  inflexible, 
determined,  self-willed  personality.  Perhaps  not  many  loved 
him,  or  longed  for  his  companionship,  or  had  any  feeling 
of  tenderness  for  him;  yet,  in  spite  of  his  manners  or  want 
of  manners,  there  was  a  fascination  about  the  man  that  often 

ern    State    except    Pennsylvania    declared    for    war,    while    every 
Southern  State  except  Kentucky  voted  solidly  for  it. 
*  Madison  to  Jefferson,  April  24,  1812,  Writings,  Vol.  2,  p.  532. 


1812]  AN   UNWISE    NOMINATION  201 

disarmed  censure  and  turned  the  critic  into  a  devotee.  At 
this  time  he  undoubtedly  stood  at  the  head  of  his  party  in 
the  North.  He  was  still  young,  having  just  entered  his  for- 
ties, still  ambitious  to  shine  as  a  statesman  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude. An  extraordinary  power  of  application  had  equipped 
him  with  the  varied  information  that  would  make  him  an 
authority  in  the  national  life.  Even  his  enemies  admitted 
his  capacity  as  a  great  executive.  He  had  sometimes  been 
compelled,  for  the  sake  of  his  own  career,  to  regulate  his 
course  by  a  disregard  of  party  creed,  especially  at  a  time 
when  the  principles  of  Republicanism  were  somewhat  unde- 
fined in  their  character ;  but  amid  all  the  doubts  and  distrac- 
tions of  a  checkered,  eventful  political  career  he  was  known 
for  his  absolute  integrity,  his  clear  head,  and  his  steady 
nerve.  His  very  pride  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  conde- 
scend to  any  violation  of  a  jjromise. 

Clinton's  New  York  party  friends  naturally  desired  a  leg- 
islative indorsement  for  him  before  Congress  could  act.  But 
Governor  Tompkins'  sudden  adjournment  of  the  Legislature 
had  stripped  him  of  that  advantage,  and  three  days  before 
the  houses  reassembled,  on  May  18,  Madison  was  renomi- 
nated by  a  congressional  caucus,  seventeen  senators  and 
sixty-six  representatives,  including  three  from  New  York, 
taking  part  in  its  proceedings.  Eleven  days  later,  ninety 
out  of  ninety-five  Republican  members  of  the  New  York  Leg- 
islature voted  in  caucus  to  support  Clinton.^  If  the  Madison 
caucus  doubted  the  wisdom  of  its  action,  the  Clinton  caucus 
was  no  less  uncertain  of  the  expediency  of  its  decision.  Gov- 
ernor Tompkins  opposed  it;  the  Livingstons  assailed  it;  the 
Martling  Men,  led  by  Sanford  and  Lewis,  refused  to  attend ; 
Ambrose  Spencer  and  John  Taylor  went  into  it  because  they 

'  "This  nnusual  unanimity  among  the  New  York  Republicans 
pointed  t6  a  growing  jealousy  of  Virginia,  which  threatened  to  end 
in  revival  of  the  old  alliance  between  New  York  and  New  England." 
— Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  6,  p.  215.  "George 
Clinton,  who  had  yielded  unwillingly  to  Jefferson,  held  Madison 
in  contempt."— 7&td.,  Vol.  4,  p.  227. 


202  CLINTON  AND  THE  PEESIDENCY    [Chap,  xviir. 

were  driven ;  and  Erastus  Koot,  in  maintaining  that  Clinton 
could  not,  and  as  a  Federal  candidate  ought  not,  to  succeed, 
clearly  voiced  the  sentiment  of  a  large  minority.  In  short, 
the  most  prominent  men  in  the  State  opposed  the  nomina- 
tion, knowing  that  Republicans  outside  of  New  York  could 
not  support  it  because  of  its  irregularity. 

But,  at  the  supreme  moment,  events  greatly  favoured  Clin- 
ton. Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  Obadiah  German,  and  other 
members  of  Congress  appeared  upon  the  scene,  bringing  the 
story  of  Madison's  unpopularity  and  bearing  letters  from 
Gideon  Granger,  the  postmaster-general,  urging  the  support 
of  Clinton.  Granger  belonged  to  Connecticut,  and,  except 
William  Eustis,  about  to  retire  as  an  inefficient  secretary  of 
war,  was  the  only  cabinet  officer  from  a  northern  State.  He 
knew  that  not  a  dozen  northern  members  of  Congress  sin- 
cerely favoured  war,  and  that  not  a  man  in  the  party  save 
Madison  himself,  sincerely  favoured  the  President's  renomi- 
nation;  but  he  also  knew  that  the  South  had  determined  to 
force  the  issue ;  and  so  in  a  powerful  document  he  demanded 
the  nomination  of  a  man  who,  when  conflict  came,  could 
shorten  it  by  a  vigorous  administration.  This  appeal  lifted 
the  Clinton  movement  above  the  level  of  an  ordinary  state 
nomination. 

On  the  day  of  his  selection,  DeWitt  Clinton  believed  his 
chances  more  than  even.  Though  the  declaration  of  war  had 
popularised  Madison  in  the  South  and  West,  and,  in  a  meas- 
ure, solidified  the  Republicans  in  the  North,  the  young  aspir- 
ant still  counted  on  a  majority  of  malcontents  and  Feder- 
alists. The  best  obtainable  information  indicated  that  three 
Republicans  in  Massachusetts  would  unite  with  the  Feder- 
alists in  choosing  Clinton  electors;  that  the  rest  of  New 
England  would  act  with  Massachusetts;  and  that  Clinton 
would  also  obtain  support  in  Maryland,  Ohio,  North  Caro- 
lina, Delaware,  New  Jersey,  and,  possibly,  Virginia.  "If 
Pennsylvania  should  be  combined,"  Clinton  said  to  Gouver- 
neur  Morris,  "I  would  come  out  all  right."  As  late,  too,  as 
the  middle  of  September,  Rufus  King  ventured  the  opinion 


1812]  AN  HISTOEIC  CONFEEENCE  203 

to  Christopher  Gore  that  while  North  Carolina  was  still  un- 
certain, Delaware,  New  Jersey  and  Maryland  would  prob- 
ably become  Clintonian,  although  Pennsylvania  and  Ver- 
mont would  be  ''democratic  and  Madisonian." 

To  the  Federalist  leaders,  Clinton  called  himself  an 
American  Federalist.  If  chosen  President  he  engaged  to 
make  immediate  peace  with  England,  and  to  oppose  the 
views  of  those  Southern  States  which  sought  to  degrade  the 
Northern  States  by  oppressing  commerce.*  It  was  this  sug- 
gestion that  led  to  a  secret  conference  between  Clinton,  John 
Jay,  Rufus  King  and  Gouverneur  Morris,  held  at  the  latter's 
home  on  August  5,  to  consider  the  advisability  of  forming 
a  peace  party.  Few  scenes  in  political  history  are  more 
dramatic  than  this  meeting  of  Clinton  and  the  three  Feder- 
alist leaders  of  the  Empire  State.  King  at  first  objected  to 
taking  any  part.  He  looked  on  Clinton,  he  said,  as  one  who 
could  lead  only  so  long  as  he  held  the  views  and  prejudices 
of  his  followers,  and  who,  unless  a  large  body  of  Republicans 
came  with  him,  was  not  worth  accepting.  But  King  finally 
consented  to  be  present,  after  Jay,  although  in  ill  health, 
promised  to  join  them.  Morris  was  pleased  to  undertake  his 
part,  for  association  with  Clinton  upon  the  Canal  Commis- 
sion had  made  them  somewhat  intimate.  It  was  agreed  to 
exclude  every  topic  except  the  plan  of  forming  a  peace  party. 
The  hour  fixed  was  two  in  the  afternoon;  but  it  was 
five  o'clock  before  Clinton  entered  the  stately  library  at 
Morrisania. 

In  opening  the  interview,  Morris  simply  read  the  resolu- 

*  "No  canvass  for  the  Presidency  was  ever  less  creditable  than  that 
of  DeWitt  Clinton  in  1812.  Seeking  war  votes  for  the  reason  that 
he  favoured  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war;  asking  support 
from  peace  Eepublicans  because  Madison  had  plunged  the  country 
into  war  without  preparation;  bargaining  for  Federalist  votes  as 
the  price  of  bringing  about  a  peace;  or  coquetting  v^dth  all  parties 
in  the  atmosphere  of  bribery  in  bank  charters — Clinton  strove  to 
make  up  a  majority  which  had  no  element  of  union  but  himself 
and  money." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  6,  p. 
410. 


204  CLINTON  AND  THE  PRESIDENCY    [Chap.  xvin. 

tions  prepared  for  a  peace  meeting.  "Then  Clinton  ob- 
served," says  Kufus  King,  "that  he  did  not  differ  from  us  in 
opinions  respecting  public  affairs,  and  that  he  entirely  ap- 
proved the  resolutions;  but,  as  his  friends,  comprehending 
a  great  majority  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  State,  were 
divided  in  their  opinions  respecting  the  war — prejudices 
against  England  leading  some  of  them  to  approve  the  war — 
time  was  necessary  to  bring  them  to  one  opinion.  Disas- 
trous events  had  already  happened,  and  owing  to  the  inca- 
pacity of  the  national  administration  still  further  misfor- 
tunes would  occur,  and  would  serve  to  produce  an  union  of 
opinion  respecting  the  war;  that  for  these  reasons  the  pro- 
posed peace  meeting  should  be  deferred  four  or  five  weeks ; 
in  the  interim  he  would  confer  with  his  friends  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  about  a  common  opinion,  and  apprise  the 
movers  of  his  ulterior  views  on  Monday,  August  10,  when 
the  canal  commissioners  would  hold  a  meeting."^ 

During  the  now  historic  interview,  Clinton  said  that  the 
President's  incapacity  made  it  impossible  for  him  longer  to 
continue  his  party  relation ;  and  he  pledged  his  honour  that 
the  breach  between  them  was  irreparable.  Yet,  on  account 
of  his  friends  as  well  as  his  own  account,  he  said,  he  deemed 
it  expedient  to  avoid  publicity  on  the  subject.  He  spoke  of 
Spencer  with  bitterness,  styling  him  "his  creature,"  whom 
Armstrong  governed,  and  who,  in  turn,  influenced  Tomp- 
kins and  John  Taylor.  "Armstrong,"  he  repeated,  "while 
engaged  in  measures  to  procure  a  peace  meeting  in  Dutchess 
County  over  which  he  had  promised  to  preside,  had  been 
bought  off  by  the  miserable  commission  of  a  brigadier- 
general."® 

As  the  campaign  grew  older,  the  Federalists  were  per- 
plexed and  distracted  by  an  increasing  uncertainty  as  to 
what  they  should  do.  This  was  especially  true  of  those  who 
sighed  for  power  and  despaired  of  getting  it  through  the 
continuance  of  a  Federalist  party.    Rufus  Kingj  clear  as  to 

^Eufus  King,   Life  and  Correspondence,  Vol.  5,  p.  269. 
•/6id.,  Vol.  5,  p.  271. 


1812]  EQUIVOCAL   IN   CHAEACTEE  205 

the  course  which  ought  to  be  followed,  earnestly  advised  his 
friends  to  nominate  a  respectable  Federalist,  not  with  the 
expectation  of  succeeding  in  the  election,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  keeping  the  Federal  body  unbroken  in  principle ;  that  its 
character  and  influence  might  be  reserved  for  the  occasion 
which,  in  the  present  course  of  affairs,  he  said,  could  not 
fail  to  arrive.  King,  however,  failed  to  influence  his  friends. 
On  September  15,  in  a  convention  of  sixty  or  more  delegates 
from  all  the  States  north  of  the  Potomac,  it  was  recom- 
mended that,  as  it  would  be  inexpedient  to  name  a  Federal 
candidate  because  impractical  to  elect  one.  Federalists 
should  co-operate  in  the  election  of  a  President  who  would 
be  likely  to  pursue  a  different  policy  from  Madison. 

This  resolution  was  largely  due  to  the  eloquence  of  Har- 
rison Gray  Otis.  He  urged  that  the  defeat  of  Madison  would 
speedily  lead  to  a  peace,  for  which  the  door  stood  open  in 
the  repeal  of  the  Orders  in  Council.  Rufus  King  insisted 
that  the  name  all  had  in  mind  be  given  in  the  resolution ;  al- 
though, he  admitted,  no  one  knew  whether  Clinton  would 
pursue  a  policy  different  from  Madison's.  No  man  in  the 
country,  he  said,  was  more  equivocal  in  his  character.  He 
had  disapproved  the  embargo  and  then  receded  from  his 
opinion;  and,  to  restore  himself  to  the  confidence  of  his 
party,  he  had  published  a  tirade  against  the  Federalists. 
^'If  we  succeed  in  promoting  his  election,"  thundered  the 
orator,  ''I  fear  we  may  place  in  the  chair  a  Caesar  Borgia 
instead  of  a  James  Madison."^  These  were  bitter  words, 
recalling  Hamilton's  famous  criticism  of  Aaron  Burr,  but 
they  were  spoken  without  the  wealth  of  Hamilton's  experi- 
ence to  support  them.  That  Clinton  would  sacrifice  his  own 
interests  and  his  own  ambition  for  the  sake  of  any  political 
cause  no  one  could  believe ;  that  he  had  played  fast  and  loose 
for  a  time  with  the  great  question  of  embargo  was  too  well 
known  to  be  denied ;  but  that  anything  had  occurred  in  his 
public  career  to  justify  Rufus  King's  simile,  his  worst  ene- 
mies could  not  seriously  credit.  Even  Christopher  Gore  was 
^  Rufus  King,  Life  and  Correspondence,  Vol,  5,  p.  281. 


206  CLINTON  AND  THE  PEESIDENCY    [Chap,  xviii. 

compelled  to  admit  that  the  Federal  leaders  of  Massachusetts 
*'are  favourably  impressed  with  the  character  and  views  of 
Clinton.  Indeed,  since  last  spring  I  have  scarcely  heard 
any  one  speak  of  him  but  extolled  the  excellence  of  his  moral 
character  and  the  purity  of  his  present  political  views."^  To 
this  King  simply  replied:  ''I  stated  my  sentiments  to  the 
meeting,  a  great  majority  of  whom  thought  them  incorrect. 
Time,  which  reveals  truth,  must  decide  between  us."^ 

By  the  middle  of  September,  Clinton  exhibited  lamentable 
weakness  as  a  political  organiser.  Opposing  him,  he  had  the 
whole  power  of  state  and  national  administrations,  and  the 
most  prominent  men  of  the  party,  led  by  Erastus  Root.  Be- 
sides, a  new  Legislature,  elected  in  the  preceding  April,  had 
a  Republican  majority  on  joint  ballot  divided  between  Clin- 
touians  and  Madisonians;  and,  still  further  to  perplex  the 
situation,  twenty  Republican  assemblymen  absolutely  re- 
fused to  vote  unless  Madison  were  given  a  fair  division  of 
the  electors.  This  meant  the  surrender  of  one  elector  out  of 
three,  an  arrangement  to  which  Clinton  dared  not  consent. 
Clinton,  though  seriously  impressed  by  the  gravity  of  his 
position,  seems  to  have  done  nothing  to  clear  the  way;  but 
the  hour  of  crisis  brought  with  it  the  man  demanded.  Dur- 
ing recent  years  a  new  and  very  remarkable  figure  in  politi- 
cal life  had  been  coming  to  the  front.  Martin  Van  Buren, 
afterward  President  of  the  United  States,  was  establishing 
his  claim  to  the  position  of  commanding  influence  he  was 
destined  to  hold  during  the  next  three  decades.  His  father, 
an  innkeeper  in  the  village  of  Kinderhook,  gave  him  a 
chance  to  learn  a  little  English  at  the  common  schools,  and 
a  little  Latin  at  the  academy.  At  the  age  of  fourteen,  he 
began  sweeping  an  office  and  running  errands  for  a  country 
attorney,  who  taught  him  the  law.  Then  he  went  to  New 
York  City  to  finish  his  education  in  the  office  of  William 
P.  Van  Ness,  an  old  Columbia  County  neighbour,  at  that  time 
making  his  brilliant  and  bitter  attack  as  "Aristides"  upon 

*  Rufus  King  Life  and  Correspondence,  Vol.  5,  pp.  281-4. 

"Ibid.,  Vol.  5,  p.  283. 


1782-1812]  MAKTIN  VAN  BUREN  20^ 

the  Clintons  and  the  Livingstons.  A  year  later,  in  1803,  Van 
Buren  celebrated  his  twenty-first  birthday  by  forming  a 
partnership  in  Kinderhook  with  a  half-brother,  James  J. 
Van  Alen,  already  established  in  the  practice.  In  1808,  he 
became  surrogate;  and  when  the  Legislature  convened  in 
November,  1812,  he  took  a  seat  in  the  Senate,  the  youngest 
man  save  one,  it  is  said,  until  then  elected  to  that  body. 

Martin  Van  Buren  had  shown  unusual  sagacity  as  a  poli- 
tician. Born  under  conditions  which  might  have  disheart- 
ened one  of  different  mould,  bred  in  a  county  given  up  to  Fed- 
eralism, and  taught  in  the  law  for  six  years  by  an  uncompro- 
mising follower  of  Hamilton,  he  nevertheless  held  stead- 
fastly to  the  Jeffersonian  faith  of  his  father.  Nor  would  he 
be  moved  in  his  fealty  to  the  Clintons,  although  Van  Ness, 
his  distinguished  law  preceptor,  worshipped  Burr  and  hated 
his  enemies.  As  a  very  young  man,  Van  Buren  was  able  to 
see  that  the  principles  of  Republicanism  had  established 
themselves  in  the  minds  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people 
interested  in  political  life,  and  if  he  had  been  persuaded 
that  Aaron  Burr  and  his  Federalist  allies  were  to  be  restored 
to  power  in  1804,  he  was  far  too  shrewd  to  be  tempted  by  the 
prospects  of  such  a  coalition.  He  had  also  shown,  from  his 
first  entrance  into  politics,  a  remarkable  capacity  for  organ- 
isation. He  had  courage,  a  social  and  cheerful  temper,  en- 
gaging manners,  and  extraordinary  application.  He  also  had 
the  happy  faculty  of  guiding  without  seeming  to  dictate;  he 
could  show  the  way  without  pushing  one  along  the  path.  Fi- 
nally, back  of  all,  was  the  ability  that  soon  made  him  the 
peer  of  Elisha  Williams,  the  ablest  lawyer  in  a  county  fa- 
mous for  its  brilliant  men,  enabling  him  quickly  to  outgrow 
the  professional  limitations  of  Kinderhook,  and  to  extend  his 
practice  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  busy  city  of  Hudson. 

Martin  Van  Buren  cannot  be  ranked  as  a  great  orator. 
He  spoke  too  rapidly,  and  he  was  wanting  in  imagination, 
without  which  eloquence  of  the  highest  character  is  impossi- 
ble. Besides,  although  his  head  was  well  formed  and  his 
face  singularly  attractive,  his  small  figure  placed  him  at  a 


208  CLINTON  AND  THE  PRESIDENCY    [Chap.  xvra. 

disadvantage.  He  possessed,  however,  a  remarkable  com- 
mand of  language,  and  his  graceful,  persuasive  manner, 
often  animated,  sometimes  thrilling,  frequently  impassioned, 
inspired  confidence  in  his  sincerity,  and  easily  classed  him 
among  the  ablest  speakers.  His  best  qualities  consisted  in 
his  clearness  of  exposition,  his  masterly  array  of  forcible  ar- 
gument, his  faculty  for  balancing  evidence,  for  acquiring  and 
comparing  facts,  and  for  appreciating  tendencies. 

When  Van  Buren  entered  the  State  Senate  he  was  recog- 
nised as  the  Republican  leader  of  his  section.  A  recent  biog- 
rapher says  that  his  skill  in  dealing  with  men  was  extra- 
ordinary, due  no  doubt  to  his  temper  of  amity  and  inborn 
genius  for  society.  "As  you  saw  him  once,"  wrote  William 
Allen  Butler,  "you  saw  him  always — always  punctilious,  al- 
ways polite,  always  cheerful,  always  self-possessed.  It 
seemed  to  any  one  who  studied  this  phase  of  his  character 
as  if,  in  some  early  moment  of  destiny,  his  whole  nature 
had  been  bathed  in  a  cool,  clear,  and  unruffled  depth,  from 
which  it  drew  this  lifelong  serenity  and  self-control."^*'  Any 
intelligent  observer  of  public  life  must  have  felt  that  Martin 
Van  Buren  was  only  at  the  opening  of  a  great  political  ca- 
reer. Inferior  to  DeWitt  Clinton  in  the  endowments  which 
obtain  for  their  possessor  the  title  of  a  man  of  genius,  he 
could,  though  thirteen  years  younger,  weigh  the  strength  of 
conflicting  tendencies  in  the  political  world  with  an  accu- 
racy to  which  Clinton  could  not  pretend. 

On  reaching  Albany,  in  November,  1812,  Van  Buren  saw 
the  electoral  situation  at  a  glance;  and  naturally,  almost 
insensibly,  he  became  Clinton's  representative.  He  slipped 
into  leadership  as  easily  as  Bonaparte  stepped  into  the  his- 
tory of  Europe,  when  he  seized  the  fatal  weakness  in  the  well 
defended  city  of  Toulon.  Van  Buren  had  approved  embargo, 
non-intercourse,  and  the  war  itself.  The  discontent  growing 
out  of  Jefferson's  severe  treatment  of  the  difficulties  caused 
by  the  Orders  in  Council  and  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees, 
seems  never  to  have  shaken  his  confidence  in    Republican 

"William  Allen  Butler,   Address  on  Martin  Tan  Buren    (1862). 


1812]  VAN  BUEEN'S  COUKAGE  209 

statesmanship,  or  aroused  the  slightest  animosity  against  the 
congressional  caucus  nominee  for  President.  But  he  ac- 
cepted Clinton  as  the  regular  and  practically  the  unanimous 
nominee  of  the  Republican  members  of  a  preceding  Legisla- 
ture. Although  Madison's  nomination  had  come  in  the  way 
then  accepted,  he  had  a  stronger  sense  of  allegiance  to  the 
expressed  will  of  his  party  in  the  State.  His  adversaries, 
of  whom  he  was  soon  to  have  many,  charged  him  with  treach- 
ery to  the  President  and  to  the  party.  There  came  a  time 
when  it  was  asserted,  and,  apparently,  with  some  show  of 
truth,  that  he  had  neither  the  courage  nor  the  heart  to  keep 
the  side  of  his  convictions  boldly  and  finally ;  that  he  was  al- 
ways thinking  of  personal  interests,  and  trying  to  take  the 
position  which  promised  the  greatest  advantage  and  the 
greatest  security.  We  shall  have  occasion,  in  the  course  of 
these  pages,  to  study  the  basis  of  such  criticism.  But,  in  the 
present  crisis,  had  he  not  been  thoroughly  sincere  and  single- 
hearted,  he  could  easily  have  thrown  in  his  fortunes  with  the 
winning  side ;  for  at  that  time  he  must  have  had  little  faith 
in  the  chances  of  Clinton's  election.  Vermont  had  been 
given  up,  Pennsylvania  was  scarcely  in  doubt,  and  the  South 
showed  unmistakable  signs  of  voting  solidly  for  Madison.^^ 
Van  Buren's  work  not  only  encouraged  several  Federalists 
to  vote  for  Clinton  electors,  but  it  compelled  the  Madison- 
ians  not  to  vote  at  all.  It  seemed  easy,  when  a  master  hand 
guided  the  helm,  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  Upon  joint 
ballot,  the  Clintonian  electors  received  seventy-four  votes  to 
the  Federalists'  forty-five;  twenty-eight  blanks  represented 

"  DeWitt  Clinton  was  classed  by  most  persons  as  a  reckless  polit- 
ical gambler,  but  Martin  Van  Buren,  when  he  intrigued,  preferred 
to  intrigue  upon  the  strongest  side.  Yet  one  feeling  was  natural 
to  every  New  York  politician,  whether  a  Clinton  or  a  Livingston, 
Burrite,  Federalist,  or  Eepublican, — all  equally  disliked  Virginia; 
and  this  innate  jealousy  gave  to  the  career  of  Martin  Van  Buren 
for  forty  years  a  bias  which  perplexed  his  contemporaries,  and 
stood  in  singular  contradiction  to  the  soft  and  supple  nature  he 
seemed  in  all  else  to  show." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United 
States,  Vol.  6,  pp.  409,  410. 


210  CLINTON  AND  THE  PRESIDENCY     [Chap,  xviii. 

the  Madison  strength.  Van  Buren,  however,  could  not  con- 
trol in  other  States.  If  some  one  in  Pennsylvania,  of  equal 
tact  in  the  management  of  men,  could  have  supplemented 
his  work,  Clinton  must  easily  have  won.  But  it  is  not  often 
given  a  party,  or  an  individual,  to  have  the  assistance  of 
two  such  men  at  the  same  time.  After  the  votes  were 
counted,  it  appeared  that  Clinton  had  carried  New  Ham- 
shire,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  had  five  votes  in  Maryland — 
eighty-nine  in  all.  The  remaining  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  belonged  to  Madison. 

In  estimating  the  discontent  excited  by  the  declaration  of 
war  Clinton  had  failed  to  foresee  that  there  is  something 
captivating  to  a  spirited  people  about  the  opening  of  a  new 
war.  He  had  also  failed  to  notice  that  military  failures 
could  not  affect  Madison's  strength.  The  surrender  of  De- 
troit, Dearborn's  blunder  in  wasting  time,  and  the  in- 
efficiency of  the  secretary  of  war  had  raised  a  storm  of  pub- 
lic wrath  sufficient  to  annihilate  Hull  and  to  shake  the  earth 
under  Eustis ;  but  it  passed  harmlessly  over  the  head  of  the 
President.  The  foreign  policy  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  ap- 
proved by  the  Republican  party,  was  on  trial,  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Administration  meant  a  want  of  confidence  in  the 
party  itself.  Here,  then,  was  a  contingency  against  which 
Clinton  had  never  thought  of  providing,  and,  as  so  often 
happens,  the  one  thing  not  taken  into  consideration,  proved 
decisive  in  the  result. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

QUARRELS  AND  RIVALRIES 

1813 

After  Clinton's  loss  of  the  Presidency,  it  must  have  been 
clear  to  his  friends  and  enemies  alike  that  his  influence  in 
the  Republican  party  was  waning.  A  revolution  in  senti- 
ment did  not  then  sweep  over  the  State  with  anything  like 
the  swiftness  and  certainty  of  the  present  era  of  cheap  news- 
papers and  rapid  transit.  Yet,  in  spite  of  his  genius,  which 
concealed,  and,  for  a  time,  checked  the  suddenness  of  his  fall, 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  quickly  understood  what  had 
liappened.  Friends  began  falling  away.  For  several  months 
Ambrose  Spencer  had  openly  and  bitterly  denounced  him, 
and  Governor  Tompkins  took  a  decisive  part  in  relieving  his 
rival  of  the  last  hope  of  ever  again  reckoning  on  the  support 
of  Republicans. 

The  feeling  against  Clinton  was  intensified  by  the  common 
I)elief  that  the  election  of  Rufus  King,  as  United  States 
senator  to  succeed  John  Smith,  on  March  4,  1813,  paid  the 
Federalists  their  price  for  choosing  Clinton  electors.  The 
Republicans  had  a  majority  on  joint  ballot,  and  James  W. 
Wilkin,  a  senator  from  the  middle  district,  was  placed  in 
nomination;  but  when  the  votes  were  counted  King  had 
sixty-four  and  Wilkin  sixty-one.  It  looked  treacherous,  and 
it  suggested  gross  ingratitude,  since  Wilkin  had  presided  at 
the  legislative  caucus  which  nominated  Clinton  for  Presi- 
dent; but,  as  we  have  seen,  events  had  been  moving  in  differ- 
ent ways,  events  destined  to  produce  a  strange  crop  of  politi- 
cal results.  In  buying  its  charter,  the  Bank  of  America  had 
contracted  to  do  many  things,  and  the  election  of  a  United 

211 


212  QUAKRELS  AND  RIVALRIES         [Chap.  xix. 

States  senator  was  not  unlikely  among  its  bargains.  This 
theory  seems  the  more  probable  since  Clinton,  whom  Rufus 
King  had  denounced  as  a  dangerous  demagogue,  would  have 
preferred  putting  King  into  a  position  of  embarrassment 
more  than  into  the  United  States  Senate.  Wilkin  himself  so 
understood  it,  or,  at  least,  he  believed  that  the  Bank,  and  not 
Clinton,  had  contributed  to  his  defeat,  and  he  said  so  in  a 
letter  afterward  found  among  the  Clinton  papers. 

Hostile  Republicans  were,  however,  now  ready  to  believe 
Clinton  guilty  of  any  act  of  turpitude  or  ingratitude;  and 
so,  on  February  4,  when  a  legislative  caucus  renominated 
Daniel  D.  Tompkins  for  governor  by  acclamation,  Clinton 
received  only  sixteen  votes  for  lieutenant-governor.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  Van  Buren  took  part  in  Clinton's  humil- 
iation; but  it  is  certain  he  did  not  act  with  all  the  fairness 
that  might  have  been  expected.  He  could  well  have  said  that 
Clinton  was  no  worse  than  the  majority  of  his  party  who 
had  nominated  him ;  that  his  aim,  like  theirs,  was  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  in  the  interest  of  an  early  peace; 
that  he  had  no  intention  of  separating  himself  from  the  Re- 
publican part}^,  and  that  his  renomination  for  lieutenant- 
governor  would  reunite  the  party,  making  it  more  potent  to 
create  and  support  war  measures.  But  Van  Buren  himself 
was  not  beyond  danger.  Tammany's  mutterings  and  Spen- 
cer's violent  denunciations  threatened  to  exclude  others  from 
the  party,  and  to  escape  their  hostility,  this  rising  young 
statesman  found  it  convenient  to  drop  Clinton  and  shout  for 
Tompkins.  A  less  able  and  clear-headed  man  might  have 
gone  wrong  at  this  parting  of  the  ways,  just  as  did  Obadiah 
German  and  other  friends  of  Clinton ;  but  Van  Buren  never 
needed  a  guide-post  to  point  out  to  him  the  safest  political 
road  to  travel.  The  better  to  prove  his  party  loyalty,  he 
consented  to  draft  the  usual  grandiloquent  address  issued  by 
the  legislative  caucus  to  Republican  electors,  always  a  sopho- 
moric  appeal,  but  quite  in  accord  with  the  rhetoric  of  the 
time.  If  any  doubt  existed  as  to  the  orthodoxy  of  Van  Bu- 
ren's  Republicanism,  this  address  must  have  dissipated  it.  It 


1813]  PLATT   SAVES   CLINTON  2ia 

sustained  the  general  government  by  forcible  argument,  and 
it  appealed  with  fervid  eloquence  and  deep  pathos  to  the 
patriotism  of  the  people  to  continue  their  support  of  the 
party. 

How  great  a  part  Clinton  was  yet  to  play  in  the  history 
of  his  State  no  one  could  foresee.  Much  speculation  has 
been  indulged  by  writers  as  to  the  probable  course  of  history 
had  he  been  elected  President,  but  the  mere  fact  that  he  was 
able  to  inspire  so  small  a  fraction  of  his  party  with  full  faith 
in  his  leadership  is  decisive  evidence  that  he  was  not  then 
the  man  of  the  hour.  It  is  certain  that  his  enemies  believed 
his  political  life  had  been  brought  to  an  ignoble  close.  Clin- 
ton probably  felt  that  he  would  have  no  difficulty  in  living 
down  the  opprobrium  put  upon  him  by  partisan  hostility; 
and  to  prove  that  he  was  still  in  the  political  arena,  a  little 
coterie  of  disting-uished  friends,  led  by  Obadiah  German  and 
Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  made  a  circle  about  him.  From  this 
vantage  ground  he  defied  his  enemies,  attacking  Madison's 
conduct  of  the  war  with  great  severity,  and  protesting 
against  the  support  of  Tompkins  and  Taylor  as  the  mere 
tools  of  Madison. 

Clinton's  usual  good  fortune  also  attended  him.  As  we 
have  seen,  the  April  elections  in  1812  returned  a  Federalist 
Assembly,  which  selected  a  Council  of  Appointment  opposed 
to  Clinton's  removal  from  the  mayoralty.  It  displaced  every- 
body else  throughout  the  State.  Clintonians  and  Madison- 
ians  alike  suffered,  including  the  able  and  distinguished 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  an  ardent  friend  of  Clinton  who  had 
been  urged  to  accept  the  attorney-generalship  after  the  death 
of  Matthias  B.Hildreth  in  the  preceding  August.  But  Clinton 
had  the  support  of  Jonas  Piatt,  the  leading  member  of  the 
Council,  and  Piatt  refused  to  permit  his  removal.  Doubtless 
the  latter  hoped  to  fill  up  the  Federalist  ranks  with  Clin- 
tonian  recruits;  and  so  with  greater  confidence  than  usual 
the  Federalists,  when  their  turn  came,  nominated  Stephen 
Van  Rensselaer  for  governor  and  George  Huntington  of 
Oneida  County  for  lieutenant-governor. 


214  QUARRELS  AND  RIVALRIES         [Chap.  xix. 

Aside  from  the  result  of  the  elections  of  the  preceding  No- 
vember, which  had  given  Federalists  twenty  out  of  thirty 
congressmen,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  upon  what  the 
party  of  Hamilton  really  based  its  confidence.  Before  the 
campaign  was  a  month  old,  it  must  have  been  evident  that 
the  defeated  candidate  for  President  had  as  little  influence 
as  Van  Rensselaer,  who,  as  a  major-general  of  militia  in  com- 
mand at  Fort  Niagara,  was  a  miserable  failure.  After  shiv- 
ering with  fear  for  sixty  days  lest  Hull's  fate  overtake  him. 
Van  Rensselaer,  apparently  in  sheer  desperation,  had  sud- 
denly ordered  a  small  part  of  his  force  across  the  river  to  be 
shot  and  captured  in  the  presence  of  a  large  reserve  who  re- 
fused to  go  to  the  assistance  of  their  comrades.  The  news 
of  this  defeat  led  Monroe  to  speak  of  him  as  "a,  weak  and  in- 
competent man  with  high  pretensions."  Jefferson  thought 
Hull  ought  to  be  "shot  for  cowardice"  and  Van  Rensselaer 
^'broke  for  incapacity."^ 

But  the  Federalists,  unmindful  of  the  real  seriousness  of 
that  disaster,  contested  the  election  with  unusual  vehemence, 
until  the  best  informed  men  of  both  parties  conceded  their 
advantage.  The  Government's  incapacity  was  abundantly  il- 
lustrated in  the  failure  of  its  armies  and  in  the  impoverished 
condition  of  its  treasury,  and  if  the  home  conditions  had 
been  disturbed  by  distress,  the  confidence  of  the  Federalists 
must  have  been  realised.  The  people  of  the  State,  however, 
had  seen  and  felt  nothing  of  actual  warfare.  In  spite  of  em- 
bargoes and  blockades,  ample  supplies  of  foreign  goods  had 
continued  to  arrive ;  and,  except  along  the  Niagara  frontier, 
occupied  by  a  few  hundred  scattered  settlers,  the  farms  pro- 
duced their  usual  harvests  and  the  industries  of  life  were 
not  impaired.  Under  these  conditions,  the  voters  of  the 
country  districts  saw  no  reason  for  defeating  a  governor 
whom  they  liked,  for  a  man  whose  military  service  added 
nothing  to  his  credit  or  to  the  lustre  of  the  State.  So,  when 
the  election  storm  subsided,  it  was  found,  to  the  bitter  morti- 

^  Jefferson  to  Madison,  Nov.  5,  1812;  Jefferson  MSS.  Series  F.,  Vol. 
XV. 


1813]  TOMPKINS  AGAIN  TRIUMPHANT  215 

fication  of  the  Federalists,  that  while  the  chief  towns,  New 
York,  Hudson  and  Albany,  were  strong  in  opposition,  Tomp- 
kins and  Taylor  had  triumphed  by  the  moderate  majority  of 
3606  in  a  total  vote  of  over  83,000.^  The  Senate  stood  three 
to  one  in  favour  of  the  Republicans.  The  Assembly  was  lost 
by  ten  votes. 

Tompkins  was  now  at  the  zenith  of  his  political  career. 
He  was  one  of  those  men  not  infrequently  observed  in  pub- 
lic life,  who,  without  conspicuous  ability,  have  a  certain 
knack  for  the  management  of  men,  and  are  able  to  acquire 
inl'uence  and  even  a  certain  degree  of  fame  by  personal  skill 
in  manipulating  patronage,  smoothing  away  difficulties,  and 
making  things  easy.  Nature  had  not  only  endowed  him  with 
a  genius  for  political  diplomacy,  but  good  fortune  had  fa- 
voured his  march  to  popularity  by  disassociating  him  with 
any  circumstances  of  birth  or  environment  calculated  to  ex- 
cite jealousy  or  to  arouse  the  suspicion  of  the  people.  He 
was  neither  rich  nor  highly  connected.  The  people  knew  him 
by  the  favourite  title  of  the  '^farmer's  boy,"  and  he  never  ap- 
peared to  forget  his  humble  beginnings.  ''He  had  the  fac- 
ulty," says  James  Renwick,  formerly  of  Columbia  College, 
who  knew  him  personally,  "of  never  forgetting  the  name  or 
face  of  any  person  with  whom  he  had  once  conversed ;  of  be- 
coming acquainted  and  appearing  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
concerns  of  their  families ;  and  of  securing,  by  his  affability 
and  amiable  address,  the  good  opinion  of  the  female  sex, 
who,  although  possessed  of  no  vote,  often  exercise  a  powerful 
indirect  influence."  Thus,  while  still  in  the  early  prime  of 
life,  he  had  risen  to  a  position  in  the  State  which,  even  in 
the  case  of  men  with  superior  intellectual  endowments, 
is  commonly  the  reward  of  maturer  years  and  longer 
experience. 

From  the  moment  Tomplcins  became  governor  in  1807  the 
strongest  ambition  of  his  mind  was  success  in  the  great 
game  of  politics ;  and,  although  never  a  good  hater,  his  ca- 

^  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  43,324;  Stephen  Van  Kensselear,  39,718. 
—Civil  List,  State  of  Neic  York  (1887),  p.  166. 


216  QUAKRELS  AND  RIVALRIES         [Chap.  xix. 

pacity  for  friendship  depended  upon  whether  the  success  of 
his  own  career  was  endangered  by  the  association.  Having 
laid  Clinton  in  the  dust,  his  eye  rested  upon  John  Arm- 
strong, who  had  recently  won  the  appointment  of  secretary 
of  war.  Armstrong  had  been  recalled  from  Paris  at  the  re- 
quest of  Napoleon,  just  in  time  to  get  in  the  way  of  both 
Clinton  and  Tompkins.  At  first  he  was  a  malcontent,  grum- 
bling at  Madison,  and  condemning  the  conduct  of  public  af- 
fairs generally;  but,  after  the  declaration  of  war,  he  sup- 
ported the  Administration,  and,  on  July  G,  1812,  to  the  sur- 
prise and  indignation  of  Clinton,  he  accepted  a  brigadier- 
ship,  with  command  of  New  York  City  and  its  defences. 
Then  came  the  period  of  danger  and  urgency  following  the 
surrender  of  Detroit,  and  Armstrong,  on  the  6th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1813,  to  the  great  embarrassment  of  Tompkins,  obtained 
quick  promotion  to  the  head  of  the  war  department. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  reason  why  Tompkins  should 
have  harboured  the  feeling  of  rivalry  toward  Armstrong  that 
he  cherished  for  Clinton.  The  former  was  simply  a  pre- 
tentious occupier  of  high  places,  without  real  ability  for 
great  accomplishment.  His  little  knowledge  of  the  theory 
and  practice  of  war  was  learned  on  the  staff  of  General 
Gates,  who,  Bancroft  says,  "had  no  fitness  for  command  and 
wanted  personal  courage."  It  was  while  Armstrong  was 
dwelling  in  the  tent  of  this  political,  intriguing  adventurer, 
that  he  wrote  the  celebrated  ''Newburgh  Letters,"  stigma- 
tised by  Washington.  These  events,  coupled  with  his  want 
of  scruples  and  known  capacity  for  intrigue  and  indolence, 
made  him  an  object  of  such  distrust  that  the  Senate,  in  spite 
of  his  social  and  political  connections,  barely  confirmed  him. 

Could  Tompkins,  looking  two  years  into  the  future,  have 
foreseen  Armstrong  passing  into  disgraceful  retirement  after 
the  capture  of  the  city  of  Washington,  he  might  easily  have 
dismissed  all  rivalry  from  his  mind ;  but  just  now  the  two 
men  who  seemed  to  stand  most  in  his  way  were  Armstrong 
and  Spencer.  He  thought  Spencer  in  too  close  and  friendly 
alliance  with    Armstrong,    and    that    Armstrong,    whose 


1813]  CLINTON'S   GOOD  LUCK  217 

strength  in  the  State  greatly  depended  upon  Spencer's  influ- 
ence, was  the  only  obstacle  in  his  path  to  the  White  House. 
Thus  there  arose  in  his  mind  a  sentiment  of  rivalry  for  Arm- 
strong, and  a  strong  feeling  of  distrust  and  dislike  for  Spen- 
cer. The  latter,  who  now  possessed  little  more  real  liking  for 
Tompkins  than  Clinton  did,  soon  understood  the  Governor's 
feeling  toward  him;  and  he  also  learned  that  Van  Buren, 
with  an  intellect  for  organisation  and  control  far  superior 
to  anything  the  Republicans  of  the  State  had  heretofore 
known,  had  come  into  the  political  game  to  stay. 

By  phenomenal  luck,  DeWitt  Clinton's  good  fortune  still 
continued  to  attend  him.  In  April,  1813,  the  Federalists  had 
again  carried  the  Assembly,  and,  although  without  senators 
in  the  middle  and  western  districts  to  serve  upon  the  Coun- 
cil of  Appointment,  Clinton  found  a  friend  in  Henry  A, 
Townsend,  who  answered  the  purpose  of  a  Federalist.  Town- 
send  would  support  Jonas  Piatt  for  a  judgeship  if  Clinton 
was  retained  as  mayor. 

Townsend  had  come  into  the  Senate  in  1810  as  a  Clinton 
Eepublican,  but  his  brief  legislative  career  had  not  been  as 
serene  as  a  summer's  day.  He  fell  out  with  Tompkins  and 
Spencer  when  he  fell  in  with  Thomas  and  Southwick,  and 
whether  or  not  the  favours  distributed  by  the  Bank  of  Amer- 
ica actually  became  a  part  of  his  assets,  the  bank's  opponents 
took  such  violent  exception  to  his  vote  that  poor  Townsend 
had  little  to  hope  for  from  that  faction  of  his  party.  It  was 
commonly  believed  at  the  time,  therefore,  that  a  desire  to 
please  Clinton  and  possibly  to  gain  the  favour  of  Federalists 
in  the  event  of  their  future  success,  influenced  him  to  sup- 
port Piatt,  conditional  on  the  retention  of  Clinton.  It  is 
quite  within  the  range  of  probability  that  some  such  motive 
quickened  his  instinct  for  revenge  and  self-preservation,  al- 
though it  led  to  an  incident  that  must  have  caused  Clinton 
keen  regret  and  mental  anguish. 

Townsend's  Republican  colleague  in  the  Council  was  none 
other  than  Morgan  Lewis,  who  saw  an  opportunity  of  creat- 
ing trouble  by  nominating  Richard  Riker  as  an  opposing 


218  QUARRELS  AND  RIVALRIES        [Chap.  xix. 

candidate  to  Piatt.  Tompkins  had  probably  something  to  do 
with  making  this  nomination — or,  at  all  events,  with  giving 
his  friend  Lewis  the  idea  of  bringing  it  forward  just  then. 
Surely,  they  thought,  Clinton  would  reverence  Riker, 
who  acted  as  second  in  the  Swartout  duel  and  re- 
cently headed  the  committee  to  promote  his  election  to  the 
Presidency.  Clinton  felt  the  sting  of  his  enemies.  There 
was  a  time  when  Clinton  had  supported  Tompkins  against 
Lewis ;  now  Lewis,  in  supporting  Tompkins  against  Clinton, 
was  thrusting  the  latter  through  with  a  two-edged  knife ;  for 
if  Townsend  voted  for  Riker,  the  Federalists  would  drop 
Clinton;  if  he  voted  for  Piatt,  Riker  would  drop  him.  In 
Tain  did  Clinton  wait  for  Riker  to  suggest  some  avenue  of 
escape.  The  plucky  second  wanted  a  judgeship  which  meant 
years  of  good  living,  as  much  as  Clinton  wanted  the  mayor- 
alty that  might  be  lost  in  another  year.  Clinton  had  not 
yet  drunk  the  dregs  of  the  bitter  cup.  False  friends  and 
their  unpaid  security  debts  were  still  to  bankrupt  him ;  but 
lie  had  already  seen  enough  to  know  that  the  setting  sun  is 
not  worshipped.  Under  these  circumstances  his  friendship 
for  Riker  was  not  strong  enough  to  induce  him  to  throw 
away  his  last  chance  of  holding  the  mayoralty  and  its  fat 
fees ;  and  so  when  Townsend  voted  for  Piatt,  Riker's  affection 
for  Clinton  turned  to  hate. 


CHAPTER  XX 

A  GREAT  WAR  GOVERNOR 

1812-1815 

The  assumption  of  extraordinary  responsibilities  during 
the  War  of  1812,  justly  conferred  upon  Daniel  D.  Tompkins 
the  title  of  a  great  war  governor.  There  is  an  essential  dif- 
ference between  a  war  governor  and  a  governor  in  time  of 
war.  One  is  enthusiastic,  resourceful,  with  ability  to  organ- 
ise" victory  by  filling  languishing  patriotism  with  new  and 
noble  inspiration — the  other  simply  performs  his  duty,  some- 
times respectably,  sometimes  only  perfunctorily.  George 
Clinton  illustrated,  in  his  own  person,  the  difference  between 
a  great  war  governor  and  a  governor  in  time  of  war.  If  he 
failed  to  win  renown  on  the  battlefield,  his  ability  to  inspire 
the  people  with  confidence,  and  to  bring  glory  out  of  threat- 
ened failure  and  success  out  of  apparent  defeat,  made  him 
the  greatest  war  governor  the  country  had  yet  known. 
Daniel  D.  Tompkins  served  his  State  no  less  acceptably.  In 
the  moment  of  greatest  discouragement  he  displayed  a  pa- 
triotic courage  in  borrowing  money  without  authority  of 
law  that  made  his  Administration  famous. 

Yet  Tompkins'  patriotism  scarcely  rose  to  that  sublime 
height  which  suffers  its  possessor  unselfishly  to  advance  a 
rival  even  for  the  public  welfare.  There  is  no  doubt  of  De- 
Witt  Clinton's  conspicuous  devotion  to  the  interests  of  his 
country  throughout  the  entire  war.  He  exceeded  his  power  as 
mayor  in  inducing  the  Common  Council  to  borrow  money  on 
the  credit  of  the  city  and  loan  it  to  the  United  States ;  at  the 
supreme  moment  of  a  great  crisis,  when  the  national  treasury 
was  empty  and  a  British  fieet  threatened  destruction  to  the 
coast,  an  impressive  address  which  he  drafted,  accompanied 

219 


220  A  GKEAT  WAR  GOVERNOR  [Chap.  xx. 

by  a  subscription  paper  wliicli  he  headed,  resulted  in  raising 
a  fund  of  over  one  million  dollars  for  the  city's  defence.  The 
genius  of  Clinton  had  never  been  more  nobl}'  employed  than 
in  his  efforts  to  sustain  the  war,  vi'inning  him  universal  es- 
teem throughout  the  municipality  for  his  patriotic  unselfish- 
ness and  unlimited  generosity.  Tompkins  must  have  known 
that  such  a  man,  already  holding  the  rank  of  major-general 
in  the  militia,  would  be  absolute  master  of  any  situation.  He 
was  not  the  one  to  throw  up  the  cards  because  the 
chances  of  the  game  were  going  against  him.  His  w^as  a 
fighting  spirit,  and  his  impulse  was  ever,  like  that  of  Mac- 
beth, to  try  to  the  last.  But  Tompkins  could  not  fail  to  ob- 
serve the  party's  growing  dislike  for  Clinton,  and,  much  as 
he  wanted  military  success,  he  graciously  declined  Clinton's 
request,  brought  to  him  by  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  to  be  as- 
signed to  active  service  in  the  field. 

Tompkins  had  little  to  encourage  him  at  the  outset  of  the 
war.  The  election  in  April,  1812,  had  turned  the  Assembly 
over  to  the  Federalists,  who  not  only  wasted  the  time  of  an 
extra  session,  called  in  November  of  that  year,  but  carried 
their  opposition  through  the  regular  session  begun  in  Jan- 
uary, 1813.  The  emergency  was  pressing.  New  England 
Federalists  had  declined  to  make  the  desired  loans  to  the 
general  government,  and  the  governor  of  New  York  wished 
his  State  to  relieve  the  situation  by  advancing  the  needed 
money.  It  was  a  patriotic  measure.  Whether  right  or  wrong, 
the  declaration  of  war  had  jeopardised  the  country.  Sol- 
diers, poorly  equipped,  scantily  clothed,  without  organisa- 
tion, and  without  pay,  were  scattered  for  hundreds  of  miles 
along  a  sparsely  settled  border,  opened  to  the  attacks  of  a 
powerful  enemy ;  yet  the  Federalists  refused  to  vote  a  dollar 
to  equip  a  man.  Why  should  we  continue  a  war  from  the 
prosecution  of  which  we  have  nothing  to  gain,  they  asked? 
The  Orders  in  Council  have  been  repealed,  England  has 
shrunk  from  facing  the  consequences  of  its  own  folly,  and 
America  has  already  won  a  complete  triumph.  What  fur- 
ther need,  then,  for  bleeding  our  exhausted  treasury? 


1812]  INEFFICIENT  GENEEALS  221 

The  Governor's  embarrassment,  however,  did  not  emanate 
from  the  Federalists  alone.  The  northern  frontier  of  New- 
York  was  to  become  the  great  battle-ground,  and  it  was  con- 
ceded that  capable  generals  and  a  sufficient  force  were  neces- 
sary to  carry  the  war  promptly  into  Canada.  But  the  Presi- 
dent furnished  neither.  He  appointed  Henry  Dearborn,  with 
the  rank  of  major-general,  to  command  the  district  from 
Niagara  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  thus  putting  all  military  opera- 
tions within  the  State  under  the  control  of  a  man  in  his 
sixty-second  year,  whose  only  military  experience  had  been 
gained  as  a  deputy  quartermaster-general  in  1781,  and  as 
colonel  of  a  New  Hampshire  regiment  after  the  end  of  the 
Revolutionary  War.  Dearborn  was  a  politician — not  a  gen- 
eral. After  serving  several  years  in  Jefferson's  Cabinet,  he 
graduated  into  the  custom-house  at  Boston,  where  he  con- 
cerned himself  more  to  beat  the  Federalists  than  he  ever  ex- 
erted himself  to  defeat  the  British.  In  his  opinion,  cam- 
paigning ought  to  have  its  regular  alternations  of  activity 
and  repose,  but  he  never  knew  when  activity  should  begin. 
To  make  the  condition  more  supremely  ironic,  Morgan  Lewis, 
now  in  his  fifty-ninth  year,  whose  knowledge  of  war,  like 
Dearborn's,  had  been  learned  as  a  deputy  quartermaster- 
general  thirty  years  before,  was  associated  with  him  in 
command. 

Dearborn  submitted  a  plan  of  campaign,  recommending 
that  the  main  army  advance  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain 
upon  Montreal,  while  three  corps  of  militia  should  enter  Can- 
ada from  Detroit,  Niagara  and  Sackett's  Harbour.  This  was 
as  near  as  Dearborn  ever  came  to  a  successful  invasion  of 
Canada.  War  was  declared  on  June  18,  1812,  and  July  had 
been  frittered  away  before  he  left  Albany.  Meantime  Gen- 
eral Hull,  whose  success  depended  largely  upon  Dearborn's 
vigorous  support  from  Niagara,  having  been  a  fortnight  on 
British  soil,  now  recrossed  the  river  and  a  few  days  later 
surrendered  his  army  and  Detroit  to  General  Brock.  This 
tragic  event  aroused  Dearborn  sufficiently  to  send  Stephen 
Van  Rensselaer  to  command  the  Niagara  frontier,  the  feeble 


222  A  GREAT  WAR  GOVERNOR  [Chap.  xx. 

General  assuring  the  secretary  of  war  that,  as  soon  as  the 
force  at  Lewiston  aggregated  six  thousand  men,  a  forward 
movement  should  be  made;  but  Dearborn  himself,  with  the 
largest  force  then  under  arms,  took  good  care  to  remain  on 
Lake  Champlain,  clinging  to  its  shores  like  a  barnacle,  as  if 
afraid  of  the  fate  visited  upon  the  unfortunate  Hull.  Fi- 
nally, after  two  months  of  waiting.  Van  Rensselaer  sent  a 
thousand  men  across  the  Niagara  to  Queenstown  to  be  killed 
and  captured  within  sight  of  four  thousand  troops  who  re- 
fused to  go  to  the  help  of  their  comrades.  Disgusted  and  de- 
feated. Van  Rensselaer  turned  over  his  command  to  Briga- 
dier-General Alexander  Smith,  a  boastful  Irish  friend  of 
Madison  from  Virginia,  who  issued  burlesque  proclamations 
about  an  invasion  of  Canada,  and  then  declined  to  risk  an 
engagement,  although  he  had  three  Americans  to  one  Eng- 
lishman.   This  closed  the  campaign  of  1812. 

With  the  hope  of  improving  the  military  situation  John 
Armstrong  was  made  secretary  of  war  in  place  of  William 
Eustis.  Armstrong  was  never  a  favourite.  His  association 
with  Gates  and  his  subsequent  career  in  France,  made  him 
an  object  of  distrust.  But,  once  in  ofiSce,  he  picked  up  the 
Eustis  ravellings  and  announced  a  plan  of  campaign  which 
included  an  attack  on  Montreal  from  Lake  Champlain;  the 
destruction  of  Kingston  and  York  (Toronto)  by  the  troops 
from  Sackett's  Harbour;  and  the  expulsion  of  the  British 
from  the  Niagara  frontier.  The  Kingston  part  of  the  pro- 
gramme possessed  genuine  merit.  Kingston  commanded  the 
traffic  of  the  St,  Lawrence,  between  Upper  and  Lower  Can- 
ada, and  no  British  force  could  maintain  itself  in  Upper  Can- 
ada without  ready  communication  with  the  lower  province; 
but  Dearborn  decided  to  reverse  Armstrong's  plan  by  taking 
York,  afterward  the  Niagara  frontier,  and  then  unite  a  vic- 
torious army  against  Kingston.  Dearborn,  to  do  him  justice, 
offered  to  resign,  and  Armstrong  would  gladly  have  gotten 
rid  of  him,  with  Morgan  Lewis  and  other  incompetents.  The 
President,  however,  clung  to  the  old  men,  making  the  spring 
and  early  summer  campaign  of  1813,  like  its  predecessor,  a 


1813]  THE    FEEBLE    WILKINSON  22$ 

record  of  dismal  failures.  York  had,  indeed,  capitulated 
after  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war,  the  American  loss 
amounting  to  one-fifth  the  entire  force,  including  Pike,  the 
best  brigadier  then  in  the  service.  But  the  British  still  held 
Niagara ;  two  brigade  commanders  had  been  sorely  defeated ; 
a  third  had  surrendered  five  hundred  and  forty  men  to  a 
British  lieutenant  with  two  hundred  and  sixty;  and  Sack- 
ett's  Harbour,  with  its  barracks  burned  and  navy-yard  de- 
stroyed, had  barely  escaped  capture,  while  Kingston  was  un- 
molested and  Dearborn  totally  incapacitated  ''with  fever 
and  mortification." 

It  was  now  mid-summer.  Tompkins  and  a  Republican 
Senate  had  been  re-elected,  but  the  Federalists,  whose  policy 
was  to  obtain  peace  on  any  terms,  still  held  the  Assembly. 
Just  at  this  time,  therefore,  success  in  the  field  would  have 
been  of  immense  value  politically,  and  as  sickness  had  put 
Dearborn  out  of  commission,  it  gave  Armstrong  an  opportu- 
nity of  promoting  Winfield  Scott  and  Jacob  Brown,  both  of 
whom  had  shown  unusual  ability  in  spite  of  the  shameless 
incapacity  of  their  seniors.  The  splendid  fighting  qualities 
of  Jacob  Brown  had  saved  Sackett's  Harbour;  and  the  bril- 
liant pluck  of  Winfield  Scott  had  withstood  a  force  three 
times  his  own  until  British  bayonets  pushed  him  over  the 
crest  of  Queenstown  Heights.  Armstrong,  however,  had 
a  liking  for  James  Wilkinson.  They  had  been  companions 
in  arms  with  Gates  at  Saratoga,  and,  although  no  one  knew 
better  than  Armstrong  the  feebleness  of  Wilkinson's  char- 
acter, he  assigned  him  to  New  York  after  the  President  had 
forced  his  removal  from  New  Orleans. 

Wilkinson's  military  life  might  fairly  be  described  as  in- 
famous. Winfield  Scott  spoke  of  him  as  an  "unprincipled 
imbecile."^  He  had  recently  been  several  times  court-mar- 
tial led,  once  for  being  engaged  in  a  treasonable  conspiracy 
with  Spain,  again  as  an  accomplice  of  Aaron  Burr,  and 
finally  for  corruption ;  and,  although  each  time  he  had  been 
acquitted,  his  brother  officers  regarded  him  with  suspicion 
^  Winfield  Scott,  Autohioyrapliy,  p.  94,  note. 


224  A  GREAT  WAR  GOVERNOR  [Chap.  xx. 

and  contempt.  Nevertheless,  this  man,  fifty-six  years  of  age, 
and  broken  in  health  as  well  as  character,  was  substituted 
for  Dearborn  and  ordered  to  take  Kingston;  and  Wade 
Hampton,  one  year  his  senior,  without  a  war  record,  and  not 
on  speaking  terms  with  Wilkinson,  was  ordered  to  Platts- 
burg  to  take  Montreal.  Folly  such  as  this  could  only  end 
in  disaster.  Whatever  Armstrong  suggested  Wilkinson  op- 
posed, and  whatever  Wilkinson  advised  Hampton  resented; 
but  Wilkinson  so  far  prevailed,  that,  before  either  expedi- 
tion started,  it  was  agreed  to  abandon  Kingston ;  and  before 
either  general  had  passed  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State, 
it  was  agreed  to  abandon  Montreal,  leaving  the  generals  and 
the  secretary  of  war  ample  time  to  quarrel  over  their  re- 
sponsibility for  the  failure.  Wilkinson  charged  Hampton 
with  blasting  the  honour  of  the  army,  and  both  generals  ac- 
cused Armstrong  of  purposely  deserting  them  to  shift  the 
blame  from  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  Armstrong  ac- 
cepted Hampton's  resignation,  sneered  at  Wilkinson  for 
abandoning  the  campaign,  and,  after  Hampton's  death,  sad- 
dled him  with  the  responsibility  of  the  whole  failure. 

Meantime,  while  the  generals  and  secretary  quarrelled, 
and  their  twelve  thousand  troops  rested  in  winter  quarters 
at  French  Mills  and  Plattsburg — leaving  the  country  be- 
tween Detroit  and  Sackett's  Harbour  with  less  than  a  regi- 
ment— the  British  were  vigorously  at  work.  They  pounced 
upon  the  Niagara  frontier ;  reoccupied  Fort  George ;  carried 
Fort  Niagara  with  great  slaughter;  and  burned  Black  Rock 
and  Buffalo  in  revenge  for  the  destruction  of  Newark  and 
Queenstown  and  the  public  buildings  at  York.  This  ended 
the  campaign  of  1813. 

On  the  high  seas,  however,  the  American  navy,  so  small 
that  England  had  scarcely  known  of  its  existence,  was  re- 
deeming the  country  from  the  disgrace  its  generals  had 
brought  upon  it.  There  are  some  battles  of  that  time,  fought 
out  in  storm  and  darkness,  which  taught  Americans  the  real 
pleasures  of  war,  and  turned  the  names  of  vessels  and  their 
brave  commanders  into  household    words;    but  not    until 


1813]  PEERY'S  GREAT  VICTORY  225 

Oliver  H.  Perry,  an  energetic  young  officer,  was  ordered  from 
Newport  to  the  Niagara  frontier,  in  the  spring  of  1813,  did 
conditions  change  from  sacrifice  and  disgrace  to  real  success. 
Six  vessels  were  at  that  time  building  at  Erie;  and  three 
smaller  craft  rested  quietly  in  the  navy-yard  at  Black  Rock. 
Perry's  orders  included  the  union  of  these  fleets,  carrying 
fifty-four  guns  and  five  hundred  inen,  and  the  destruction  of 
six  British  vessels,  carrying  sixty-three  guns  and  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men.  Six  months  of  patient  labour  on  both 
sides  were  required  to  put  the  squadrons  into  fighting  condi- 
tion ;  but  when,  on  the  afternoon  of  September  10,  Perry  had 
fought  the  fight  to  a  finish,  the  British  squadron  belonged 
to  him.  The  War  of  1812  would  be  memorable  for  this,  if  it 
"were  for  nothing  else;  and  the  indomitable  Perry,  whose 
stubborn  courage  had  wrested  victory  from  what  seemed 
inevitable  defeat,  is  enthroned  among  the  proudest  names  of 
the  great  sea  fighters  of  history. 

After  Wilkinson,  Morgan  Lewis,  and  other  incompetent 
generals  had  retired  in  disgrace,  Armstrong  recognised  the 
genius  of  Jacob  Brown  and  Winfield  Scott.  Brown  was  of 
Quaker  parentage,  a  school  teacher  by  profession,  and  a 
farmer  by  occupation.  After  founding  the  town  of  Browns- 
ville, he  had  owned  and  lived  on  a  large  tract  of  land  near 
Sackett's  Harbour,  and  for  recreation  he  had  commanded  a 
militia  regiment.  In  1811,  Tompkins  made  him  a  brigadier, 
and  when  the  contest  opened,  he  found  his  true  mission.  He 
knew  nothing  of  the  technique  of  war.  Laying  out  fortifica- 
tions, policing  camps,  arranging  with  calculating  foresight 
for  the  far  future,  did  not  fall  within  his  knowledge;  but  for 
a  fighter  he  must  always  rank  in  history  with  John  Paul 
Jones ;  and  as  a  leader  of  men  he  had  hardly  a  rival  in  those 
days.  Soldiers  only  wanted  his  word  of  command  to  under- 
take any  enterprise,  no  matter  how  hopeless.  Winfield  Scott, 
who  understood  Brown's  limitations,  said  there  was  nothing 
he  could  not  do  if  he  only  got  a  fair  opportunity.  Armstrong 
commissioned  him  a  major-general  in  place  of  Wilkinson, 
and  assigned  Scott  to  a  brigade  in  his  command.    These  of- 


226  A  GREAT  WAR  GOVERNOR  [CnAP.  xx. 

ficers,  full  of  zeal  and  vigor,  infused  new  life  into  an  army 
that  had  been  beaten  and  battered  for  two  years.  In  twelve 
weeks,  during  July,  August,  and  September,  the  British  met 
stubborn  resistance  at  Chippewa,  Lundy's  Lane,  Fort  Erie^ 
and  Black  Rock,  and  a  repulse  as  disgraceful  as  it  was  com- 
plete at  Plattsburg.  But  before  Brown  could  establish  the 
new  order  of  things  along  the  whole  Canadian  border,  the 
British  took  Oswego,  with  its  abundant  commissary  sup- 
plies, and  their  navy  inflicted  a  wound,  in  the  destruction 
of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Argus,  that  turned  the  Perry 
huzzas  into  suppressed  lamentations. 

Following  this  calamity,  occurred  the  April  elections  of 
1814.  The  uncertain  temper  of  the  people  gave  Tompkins 
little  to  expect  and  much  to  fear.  He  believed  it  had  only 
needed  a  bold  and  spirited  forward  movement  to  demon- 
strate that  the  United  States  was  in  a  position  to  dictate 
terms  to  England;  but  existing  conditions  indicated  that 
England  would  soon  dictate  terms  to  the  United  States. 
Tompkins  may  be  fairly  excused,  therefore,  if  he  failed  to 
discern  in  the  struggle  for  political  supremacy  the  slightest 
indication  of  that  victory  so  long  prayed  for.  Events,  how- 
ever, had  been  working  silently — differently  than  either  Fed- 
eralist or  Republican  guessed;  and,  to  the  utter  amazement 
of  all,  the  war  party  swept  the  State,  electing  assemblymen 
even  in  New  York  City,  twenty  out  of  thirty  congressmen, 
and  every  senator,  save  one.  Under  these  circumstances 
Tompkins  lost  no  time  in  summoning,  in  September,  an  extra 
session  of  the  newly  elected  Legislature,  which  began  turning 
out  war  measures  •  like  cloth  from  a  loom.  It  raised  the 
pay  of  the  militia  above  that  of  the  regular  army;  it  encour- 
aged privateering;  it  authorised  the  enlistment  of  twelve 
thousand  men  for  two  years  and  two  thousand  slaves  for 
three  years ;  it  provided  for  a  corps  of  twenty  companies  for 
coast  defence ;  it  assumed  the  State's  quota  of  direct  tax,  and 
it  reimbursed  Governor  Tompkins  for  personal  expenditures 
incurred  without  authority  of  law.  Some  of  these  measures 
were  drastic,  especially  the  conscription  bill;  but  the  act 


1814]  A  WAK  LEGISLATUEE  227 

showing  the  determination  of  the  Republican  party  to  fight 
the  war  to  a  finish,  was  that  allowing  slaves  to  enlist  with 
the  consent  of  their  masters,  and  awarding  them  freedom 
when  honourably  mustered  out  of  service. 

There  was  certainly  much  need  for  an  active  and  vigorous 
Legislature  in  the  fall  of  1814.  Washington  had  been  cap- 
tured and  burned ;  Armstrong,  threatened  with  removal,  had 
resigned  in  disgrace ;  the  national  treasury  was  empty ;  and 
€very  bank  between  New  Orleans  and  Albany  had  suspended 
specie  payment,  with  their  notes  from  twenty  to  thirty  per 
cent,  below  par.  Although,  in  ten  weeks,  from  July  3  to  Sep- 
tember 11,  the  British  had  met  a  bloody  and  unparalleled 
€heck  from  an  inferior  force,  under  the  brilliant  leadership 
of  Brown  and  Scott,  and  a  most  disgraceful  repulse  by  Mac- 
donough  and  Macomb  at  Plattsburg,  victorious  English  vet- 
erans, fresh  from  the  battlefields  of  Spain,  continued  to  ar- 
rive, until  Canada  contained  twenty-seven  thousand  regular 
troops.  On  the  other  hand,  Macomb  had  only  fifteen  hundred 
men  at  Plattsburg,  Brown  less  than  two  thousand  at  Fort 
Erie,  and  Izard  about  four  thousand  at  Buffalo. 

To  make  bad  matters  worse,  the  New  England  Federalists 
were  renewing  their  talk  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  "We 
have  been  led  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution,"  said  Gover- 
nor Strong  of  Massachusetts,  addressing  the  Legislature  on 
October  5,  1814,  "to  rely  on  the  government  of  the  Union  to 
provide  for  our  defence.  We  have  resigned  to  that  govern- 
ment the  revenues  of  the  State  with  the  expectation  that 
this  object  would  not  be  neglected.  Let  us,  then,  unite  in 
such  measures  for  our  safety  as  the  times  demand  and  the 
principles  of  justice  and  the  law  of  self-preservation  will  jus- 
tify."^ Answering  for  the  Legislature,  which  understood 
the  Governor's  words  to  be  an  invitation  to  resume  powers 
the  State  had  given  up  when  adopting  the  Constitution, 
Harrison  Gray  Otis  reported  that  "this  people,  being  ready 
and  determined  to  defend  themselves,  have  the  greatest  need 
of  those  resources  derivable  from  themselves  which  the  na- 
^  Message;  Niles,  Vol.  7,  p.  113. 


228  A  GKEAT  WAR  GOVERNOR  [Chap.  xx. 

tional  government  has  hitherto  thought  proper  to  employ 
elsewhere.  When  this  deficiency  becomes  apparent,  no  rea- 
son can  preclude  the  right  of  the  whole  people  who  were 
parties  to  it,  to  adopt  another."^  The  report  closed  by  rec- 
ommending the  appointment  of  delegates  "to  meet  and  con- 
fer with  delegates  from  the  States  of  New  England  or  any 
of  them,"  out  of  which  grew  the  celebrated  Hartford  Conven- 
tion that  met  on  the  15th  of  December.  The  report  of  this- 
convention,  made  on  the  24th  of  the  same  month,  declared 
that  a  severance  of  the  Union  can  be  justified  only  by  abso- 
lute necessity ;  but,  following  the  Virginia  resolution  of  1798^ 
it  confirmed  the  right  of  a  State  to  ''interpose  its  authority" 
for  the  protection  of  its  citizens  against  conscriptions  and 
drafts,  and  for  an  arrangement  with  the  general  government 
to  retain  "a  reasonable  portion"  of  the  revenues  to  be  used 
in  its  own  defence  and  in  the  defence  of  neighbouring  States. 
In  other  words,  it  favoured  the  establishment  of  a  New  Eng- 
land confederacy.  Thus,  after  ten  years,  the  crisis  had  come 
which  Pickering,  the  storm  petrel,  desired  to  precipitate  in 
the  days  when  Hamilton  declined  to  listen  and  Aaron  Burr 
consented  to  lead. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  great  body  of  Federalists  in  New 
York  really  sympathised  with  their  eastern  brethren.  Those 
who  did,  like  Gouverneur  Morris,  proclaimed  their  views 
in  private  and  confidential  letters.  "I  care  nothing  more  for 
your  actings  and  doings,"  Morris  wrote  Pickering,  then  in 
Congress.  ''Your  decree  of  conscription  and  your  levy  of 
contributions  are  alike  indifferent  to  one  whose  eyes  are  fixed 
on  a  star  in  the  east,  which  he  believes  to  be  the  dayspring 
of  freedom  and  glory.  The  traitors  and  madmen  assembled 
at  Hartford  will,  I  believe,  if  not  too  tame  and  timid,  be 
hailed  hereafter  as  the  patriots  and  sages  of  their  day  and 
generation."*  Looking  back  on  the  history  of  that  porten- 
tous event,  one  is  shocked  to  learn    that  men  like   Morris 

"Eeport  of  Oct.  8,  1814;    Niles,   Vol.  7,  p.  149. 

*  Gouverneur  Morris  to  Timothy  Pickering,  Dec.  22,  1814,  Morris's 
Works,  Vol.  3,  p.  324. 


1815]  VICTOKY  AT  NEW  ORLEANS  229 

could  have  sympathy  with  the  principle  sought  to  be  estab- 
lished ;  but  if  any  leading  New  York  Federalist  disapproved 
the  convention's  report  he  made  no  public  record  of  it  at 
the  time.^ 

The  violent  methods  of  New  England  governors  in  with- 
drawing their  militia  from  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
coupled  with  the  action  of  the  New  York  Federalists  in  call- 
ing a  state  convention  to  determine  what  course  their  party 
should  pursue,  were  well  calculated  to  arouse  Governor 
Tompkins,  who  welcomed  the  privilege  of  upholding  the  gen- 
eral government.  He  did  not  minimise  the  gravity  of  the 
situation.  Perhaps  he  did  not  feel  the  alarm  expressed  in  Jef- 
ferson's letter  to  Gallatin,  a  year  after  the  crisis  had  passed ; 
for  he  now  had  behind  him  a  patriotic  Legislature  and  the 
nucleus  of  an  invincible  army  under  trained  leadership.  But 
if  the  war  had  continued,  and,  as  the  Washington  authorities 
anticipated,  the  British  had  prevailed  at  New  Orleans,  he 
would  have  found  a  New  England  confederacy  to  the  east 
of  him  as  well  as  an  army  of  English  veterans  on  the  north. 

The  conditions  that  faced  Madison  made  peace  his  last 
hope.  American  commissioners  were  already  in  Europe ;  but 
as  month  after  month  passed  without  agreement,  the  darkest 
hour  of  the  war  seemed  to  have  settled  upon  the  country. 
Suddenly,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1815,  the  startling  and 
glorious  news  of  General  Jackson's  decisive  victory  at  New 
Orleans  electrified  the  nation.  A  week  later,  a  British  sloop 
of  war  sailed  into  New  York  harbour,  announcing  that  the 
treaty  of  Ghent  had  been  signed  on  the  24th  of  the  preceding 
December.  Instantly  Madison's  troubles  disappeared.  The 
war  was  over,  the  Hartford  commissioners  were  out  of  em- 

^  "Among  the  least  violent  of  Federalists  was  James  Lloyd,  re- 
cently United  States  senator  from  Massachusetts.  To  John  Ran- 
dolph's letter,  remonstrating-  against  the  Hartford  Convention, 
Lloyd  advised  the  Virginians  to  coerce  Madison  into  retirement, 
and  to  place  Rufus  King  in  the  Presidency  as  the  alternative  to  a 
fatal  issue.  The  assertion  of  such  an  alternative  showed  how  des- 
perate the  situation  was  believed  by  the  moderate  Federalists  to 
be." — Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  8,  p.  306. 


230  A  GEE  AT  WAR  GOVERNOK  [Chap.  xx. 

ployment,  and  the  happy  phrase  of  Charles  J.  Ingersoll  of 
Pennsylvania  became  the  popular  summing  up  of  the  treaty 
— ''not  an  inch  ceded  or  lost."  Jackson's  victory  had  not  en- 
tered into  the  peace  negotiations ;  but  intelligent  men  knew 
that  the  superb  fighting  along  the  Canadian  frontier  during 
the  campaign  of  1814,  had  had  much  to  do  in  bringing  about 
the  result.  Beginning  with  the  battle  of  Chippewa,  where 
equal  bodies  of  troops  met  face  to  face,  in  broad  daylight,  on 
an  open  field,  without  advantage  of  position,  the  American 
army  faced  British  troops  with  the  skill  and  desperate  cour- 
age that  characterised  the  struggle  between  the  North  and 
the  South  forty  years  later. 

Among  civilians  most  admired  for  their  part  in  the  strug- 
gle, Daniel  D.  Tompkins  stood  first.  The  genius  of  an  Ameri- 
can governor  had  never  been  more  nobly  employed,  and,  al- 
though he  was  sometimes  swayed  by  prejudice  and  the  im- 
pulses of  his  personal  ambition,  he  did  enough  to  show  that 
Jie  was  devotedly  attached  to  his  country. 


CHAPTER   XXI 
CLINTON  OVERTHROWN 
1815 

The  election  of  a  Republican  Assembly  in  the  spring  of 
1814  opened  the  way  for  a  Republican  Council  of  Appoint- 
ment, composed  of  Jonathan  Dayton,  representing  the  south- 
ern district,  Lucas  Elmendorff  the  middle,  Ruggles  Hub- 
bard the  eastern,  and  Ferrand  Stranahan  the  western.  El- 
mendorff had  been  two  years  in  the  Assembly,  six  years  in 
Congress,  and  was  now  serving  the  first  year  of  a  single  term 
in  the  State  Senate;  but  like  his  less  experienced  colleagues 
he  was  on  the  Council  simply  to  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the 
leaders.  It  had  been  three  years  since  Republicans  had  tasted 
the  sweets  of  oflice,  and  a  hungrier  horde  of  applicants  never 
besieged  the  capital.  Yet  so  dextrous  had  politicians  be- 
come in  making  changes  from  one  party  to  the  other,  that 
the  Council's  work  must  have  ended  in  a  week  had  not  the 
jealousies,  until  now  veiled  by  the  war,  quickly  developed 
into  a  conflict  destined  to  reconcile  Ambrose  Spencer  and  De- 
Witt  Clinton,  and  to  rivet  the  friendly  relations  between 
Governor  Tompkins  and  Martin  Van  Buren. 

A^an  Buren  desired  to  become  attorney-general.  He  had 
been  conspicuously  prominent  almost  from  the  day  he  en- 
tered the  Senate;  and,  after  the  Republicans  recovered  con- 
trol of  the  Assembly,  he  was  the  acknowledged  legislative 
leader  of  his  party.  By  his  persuasive  eloquence,  his  gift  of 
argument,  and  his  political  tact  in  obtaining  supporters,  he 
secured  the  passage  of  a  ''classification  bill"  which  divided 
the  military  population  of  the  State  into  twelve  thousand 
classes,  each  class  being  required  to  furnish  one  able-bodied 

231 


232  CLINTON  OVERTHROWN  [Chap.  xxi. 

soldier  by  voluntary  enlistment,  by  bounty,  or  by  draft. 
"This  act,"  declared  Thomas  H.  Benton,  years  afterward, 
"was  the  most  energetic  war  measure  ever  adopted  in  the 
country."^  There  appears  to  be  a  general  agreement  among 
writers  who  have  commented  upon  the  character  of  Van 
Buren  and  his  work  at  this  period  of  his  career,  that,  next 
to  the  Governor  among  civilians,  Van  Buren  was  most  enti- 
tled to  the  gratitude  of  his  party  and  his  State.  Besides,  his 
smooth  and  pleasing  address  had  become  more  fascinating 
the  longer  he  continued  in  the  Senate,  until  his  influence 
among  legislators  was  equalled  only  by  the  kindly  and  sym- 
pathetic Tompkins,  whose  success  in  the  war  had  won  him  a 
place  in  the  hearts  of  men  similar  to  that  enjoyed  by  George 
Clinton  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution. 

But  popular  and  deserving  as  Van  Buren  was  Ambrose 
Spencer  opposed  his  preferment.  He  saw  in  the  brilliant 
young  legislator  an  obstacle  to  his  own  influence;  and  to 
break  his  strength  at  the  earliest  moment  he  advocated  for 
attorney-general  the  candidacy  of  John  Woodworth.  Wood- 
worth  was  filling  the  position  when  the  Federalists  in- 
stalled Abraham  Van  Vechten;  his  right  to  restoration  ap- 
pealed with  peculiar  force  to  his  party  friends.  Ruggles 
Hubbard  of  the  Council,  representing  Woodworth's  district, 
naturally  inclined  to  his  support,  but  Stranahan  had  no 
other  interest  in  his  candidacy  than  a  desire  to  please  Spen- 
cer. This  left  the  Council  a  tie.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  Tompkins  was  in  thorough  accord  with  Van  Buren's 
wishes,  and  that  he  regarded  Spencer  with  almost  unquali- 
fied dislike,  but  he  was  a  cnndidate  for  President  and  natur- 
ally preferred  keeping  out  of  trouble.  Nevertheless,  when  it 
required  his  vote  to  settle  the  controversy  he  gave  it  ungrudg- 
ingly to  Van  Buren.  In  selecting  a  secretary  of  state,  the 
Governor  applied  the  same  rule.  Spencer's  friend,  Elisha 
Jenkins,  had  previously  held  the  office,  and,  like  Woodworth, 
desired  reinstatement;  but  Tompkins — tossing  Jenkins  aside 
and  ignoring  Samuel  Young,  speaker  of  the  Assembly,  who 
'Edward  M.  Shepard,  Martin  Van  Buren,  p.  62. 


1815]  A  POLITICAL  MEDDLING  JUDGE  233 

was  promised  and  expected  the  office — insisted  upon  Peter  B. 
Porter,  now  a  hero  of  the  Niagara  frontier. 

Spencer  had  long  realised  that  Tompkins  was  turning 
against  him.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  Governor  ever  felt  a  per- 
sonal liking  for  this  political  meddling  judge,  although  he 
accepted  his  services  during  the  war  with  a  certain  degree 
of  confidence.  But  now  that  hostilities  were  at  an  end,  he 
proposed  to  distribute  patronage  along  lines  of  his  own 
choosing.  Porter  had  recently  been  elected  to  Congress,  and 
his  presence  in  Washington  would  help  the  Governor's  presi- 
dential aspirations,  especially  if  the  young  soldier's  friend- 
ship was  sealed  in  advance  by  the  unsolicited  honour  of  an 
appointment  as  secretary  of  state.  For  the  same  reason,  he 
desired  the  election  of  Nathan  Sanford  to  the  United  States 
Senate  to  succeed  Obadiah  German.  Spencer  favoured  John 
Armstrong,  late  secretary  of  war,  and  when  the  latter  was 
thrust  aside  as  utterly  undesirable,  the  Judge  announced 
his  own  candidacy.  But  Van  Buren,  resenting  Spencer's 
opposition,  skilfully  resisted  his  claims  until  he  grew  timid 
and  declined  to  compete  "with  so  young  a  man  as  Mr.  San- 
ford."    Fourteen  years  divided  their  ages. 

The  change  Republicans  most  clamoured  for  had  not,  how- 
ever, come  yet.  DeWitt  Clinton  still  held  the  mayoralty. 
Spencer  urged  his  removal  and  controlled  Stranahan;  the 
Martling  Men  demanded  it  and  controlled  Dayton;  but  El- 
mendorff  and  Hubbard  hesitated,  and  Tompkins  disliked  giv- 
ing the  casting  vote.  The  Governor  realised  that  no  states- 
man had  lived  in  his  day  in  whom  the  people  had  shown 
greater  confidence ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  present  clamour,  he 
knew  that  the  iron-willed  Mayor  still  possessed  the  friend- 
ship of  the  best  men  and  ripest  scholars  in  the  State.  De- 
Witt  Clinton  was  seen  at  his  best,  no  doubt,  by  those  who 
knew  him  in  private  life,  among  his  books ;  and,  though  his 
strong  opinions  and  earnest  desire  to  maintain  his  side  of 
the  controversy,  brought  him  into  frequent  antagonisms,  his 
guests  were  encouraged  to  give  free  utterance  to  their  own 
ideas  and  views. 


234  CLINTON  OVERTHKOWN  [Chap.  xxr. 

These  same  qualities  made  him  an  active,  restless  leader 
of  men  in  the  world  of  politics.  No  doubt  many  hated  him, 
for  he  made  enemies  more  easily  than  friends;  but  neither 
enemy  nor  friend  could  deny  the  great  natural  capacity 
which  had  gradually  gained  a  commanding  place  for  him 
in  public  life.  Tompkins  must  have  felt  that  it  was  only  a 
question  of  time  when  Clinton  would  again  win  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  and  make  his  enemies  his  footstool. 
What,  therefore,  to  do  with  him  was  a  serious  question. 
Chained  or  unchained  he  was  dangerous.  The  free  masonry 
of  intellect  and  education  gave  him  rank;  and  if  compelled 
to  surrender  the  mayoralty  he  might,  at  any  moment,  take 
up  some  work  which  would  bring  him  greater  fame  and  influ- 
ence. Nevertheless,  Tompkins  felt  compelled  to  reach  some 
decision.  The  Martling  Men  were  insistent.  They  charged 
that  Clinton,  inspired  by  unpatriotic  motives  in  the  interest 
of  Federalism,  had  opposed  the  war,  and  was  an  enemy  of  his 
party;  and  in  demanding  his  removal  they  threatened  those 
who  caused  delay.  Van  Buren  could  probably  have  relieved 
Tompkins  by  influencing  Elmendorfif,  but  Van  Buren,  like 
Tompkins,  was  too  shrev/d  to  rush  into  trouble. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  possibility  of  a  reconciliation  between 
Spencer  and  Clinton  occurred  to  Van  Buren,  and,  if  it  did, 
it  must  have  seemed  too  remote  seriously  to  be  considered; 
for  just  then  Spencer  was  indefatigable  in  his  exertions  on 
the  opposite  side.  Van  Buren,  moreover,  understood  politics 
too  well  to  be  blind  to  the  danger  of  incurring  the  hostility 
of  such  a  mind.  A  man  who  could  bring  to  political  work 
such  resources  of  thought  and  of  experience,  who  could  look 
beneath  the  surface  and  see  clearly  in  what  direction  and 
by  what  methods  progress  was  to  be  made,  was  not  one  to  be 
trifled  with. 

No  doubt  Buggies  Hubbard  had  a  sincere  attachment  for 
Clinton.  In  supporting  his  presidential  aspirations  Hubbard 
visited  Vermont,  where  he  exercised  his  companionable  gifts 
in  an  effort  to  obtain  for  Clinton  the  vote  of  that  State.  But 
Hubbard  had  neither  firmness  nor  strength  of  intellect.    Ir- 


1815J  CLINTON   HEROIC    IN   ADVERSITY  235 

regular  in  his  habits,  lax  in  his  morals,  a  spendthrift  and  an 
insolvent,  he  could  not  resist  the  incessant  attacks  upon 
Clinton,  nor  the  offer  of  the  shrievalty  of  New  York,  with  its 
large  income  and  fat  fees.  When,  therefore,  Elmendorff 
finally  evidenced  a  disposition  to  yield,  Hubbard  made  the 
vote  for  Clinton's  removal  unanimous. 

There  have  been  seventy-nine  mayors  of  New  York  since 
Thomas  Willett,  in  1665,  first  took  charge  of  its  affairs  under 
the  iron  rule  of  Peter  Stuyvesant,  but  only  one  in  the  long 
list,  averaging  a  tenure  of  three  years  each,  served  longer 
than  DeWitt  Clinton,  Richard  Varick,  the  military  secre- 
tary of  Schuyler  and  Washington,  and  the  distinguished  as- 
sociate of  Samuel  Jones  in  revising  the  laws  of  the  State, 
held  the  mayoralty  from  1789  to  1801,  continuing  through 
the  controlling  life  of  the  Federalist  party  and  the  closing 
years  of  a  century  full  of  heroic  incident  in  the  history  of 
the  city.  But  DeWitt  Clinton,  holding  office  from  1803  to 
1815 — save  the  two  years  given  Marinus  Willett  and  Jacob 
Radcliff — saw  the  city's  higher  life  keep  pace  with  its  growth 
and  aided  in  the  forces  that  widened  its  achievement  and 
made  it  a  financial  centre.  It  must  have  cost  this  master- 
spirit of  his  age  a  deep  sigh  to  give  up  a  position  in  which 
his  work  had  been  so  wise  and  helpful.  His  situation,  in- 
deed, seemed  painfully  gloomy ;  his  office  was  gone,  his  salary 
was  spent,  and  his  estate  was  bankrupt.  It  is  doubtful  if  a 
party  leader  ever  came  to  a  more  distressing  period  in  his 
career ;  yet  he  preserved  his  dignity  and  laughed  at  the  storm 
that  howled  so  fiercely  about  him.  ''Genuine  greatness,"  he 
said,  in  a  memorial  address  delivered  about  this  time,  "never 
appears  in  a  more  resplendent  light,  or  in  a  more  sublime 
attitude,  than  in  that  buoyancy  of  character  which  rises  su- 
perior to  danger  and  difiiculty." 

In  the  meantime,  Governor  Tompkins  was  riding  on  the 
crest  of  the  political  waves.  On  February  14,  1816,  a  legisla- 
tive caucus  unanimously  instructed  the  members  of  Con- 
gress from  New  York  to  support  him  for  President ;  a  week 
later  it  nominated  him  for  governor.   Tompkins  had  no  de- 


2.36  CLINTON  OVERTHROWN  [Chap.  xxr. 

sire  to  make  a  fourth  race  for  governor,  but  the  unexpected 
nomination  of  Rufus  King  left  him  no  alternative.  William 
W.  Van  Nes3  had  been  determined  upon  as  the  Federalist 
candidate,  until  the  fraudulent  capture  of  the  Council  of 
Appointment  by  the  Republicans  made  it  inadvisable  for  the 
popular  young  Judge  to  leave  the  bench;  and  to  save  the 
party  from  disruption  Rufus  King  consented  to  head  the 
Federalist  ticket.  His  great  strength  quickly  put  Republi- 
cans on  the  defensive;  and  the  only  man  whom  the  party 
dared  to  oppose  to  him  was  the  favourite  champion  of  the 
war.  Tompkins'  re-election  by  over  six  thousand  majority^ 
once  more  attested  his  widespread  popularity. 

For  the  moment,  every  one  seemed  to  be  carried  away  by 
the  fascination  of  the  man.  His  friends  asserted  that  he 
was  always  right  and  always  successful ;  that  patriotism  had 
guided  him  through  the  long,  discouraging  war,  and  that, 
swayed  neither  by  prejudice,  nor  by  the  impulses  of  per- 
sonal ambition,  in  every  step  he  took  and  every 
measure  he  recommended,  he  was  actuated  by  the 
most  unselfish  purpose.  Of  course,  this  was  the  extrava- 
gance of  enthusiastic  admirers ;  but  it  was  founded  on  twelve 
years  of  public  life,  marked  by  success  and  by  few  errors 
of  judgment  or  temper.  Even  Federalists  ceased  to  be  his 
critics.  It  is  not  easy  to  parallel  Governor  Tompkins'  stand- 
ing at  this  time.  If  DeWitt  Clinton's  position  seemed  most 
wretched,  Tompkins'  lot  appeared  most  happy.  His  life  had 
been  pure  and  noble;  he  was  a  sincere  lover  of  his  country; 
a  brave  and  often  a  daring  executive;  a  statesman  of  high 
purpose  if  not  of  the  most  commanding  talents. 

There  was  one  man,  however,  with  whom  he  must  reckon. 
Ambrose  Spencer  not  only  loved  power,  but  he  loved  to  ex- 
ercise it.  He  lacked  the  address  of  Tompkins,  and,  likewise, 
the  vein  of  levity  in  the  Governor's  temperament  that  made 
him  buoyant  and  hopeful  even  when  most  eager  and  earnest; 
but  he  was  bold,  enterprising,  and  of  commanding  intellect, 

==  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  45,412;  Kufus  King,  38,647.— Cm?  List, 
State  of  New  York  (1887),  p.  166. 


1815]  SPENCER   BOLTS   TOMPKINS  237 

with  a  determination  to  do  with  all  his  might  the  part  he 
had  to  perform.  His  failure  to  become  United  States  sen- 
ator, and  the  appointment  of  Van  Buren  and  Porter  in  place 
of  Woodworth  and  Elisha  Jenkins,  rankled  in  his  bosom. 
That  was  his  first  defeat.  More  than  this,  it  proved  that  he 
could  be  defeated.  Since  DeWitt  Clinton's  defection  in  1812, 
he  had  been  the  most  powerful  political  factor  in  the  State, 
a  man  whom  the  Governor  had  found  it  expedient  to  toler- 
ate and  to  welcome. 

The  events  of  the  past  year  had,  however,  convinced  Spen- 
cer that  nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  longer  adherence  to 
Tompkins,  whom  he  had  now  come  to  regard  with  distrust 
and  dislike.  When,  therefore,  a  candidate  for  President 
began  to  be  talked  about  he  promptly  favoured  William  H. 
Crawford.  The  Georgia  statesman,  high  tempered  and  over- 
bearing, showed  the  faults  of  a  strong  nature,  coupled  with 
an  ambition  which  made  him  too  fond  of  intrigue;  but  Gal- 
latin declared  that  he  united  to  a  powerful  mind  a  most  cor- 
rect judgment  and  an  inflexible  integrity.  In  the  United 
States  Senate,  with  the  courage  and  independence  of  Clay 
and  the  intelligence  of  Gallatin,  he  had  been  an  earnest  ad- 
vocate of  war  and  a  formidable  critic  of  its  conduct.  Com- 
pared to  Monroe  he  was  an  intellectual  giant,  whose  name 
was  as  familiar  in  New  York  as  that  of  the  President,  and 
whose  character  was  vastly  more  admired.  In  favouring  such 
a  candidate  it  may  be  easily  understood  how  the  influence  of 
a  man  like  Spencer  afl'ected  other  state  leaders.  Their  dis- 
like of  the  Virginian  was  as  pronounced  as  in  1812,  while 
their  faith  in  the  success  of  Tompkins,  of  whom  Southern 
congressmen  knew  as  little  as  they  did  of  DeWitt  Clinton 
four  years  before,  was  not  calculated  to  inspire  them  with 
the  zeal  of  missionaries.  Spencer's  bold  declaration  in  favour 
of  Crawford,  therefore,  hurt  Tompkins  more  than  his  hesi- 
tation to  support  his  brother-in-law  in  1812  had  damaged 
Clinton. 

In  the  early  autumn  of  1814,  the  President  had  invited 
the  Governor  to  become  his  secretary  of  state.    Madison  had 


238  CLINTON  OVERTHROWN  [Chap.  xxi. 

been  naturally  drawn  toward  Tompkins,  who  had  shown 
from  his  first  entrance  into  public  life  a  remarkable  capacity 
for  diplomatic  management;  and,  although  he  had  none  of 
the  higher  faculties  of  statesmanship,  the  President  prob- 
ably saw  that  he  would  make  just  the  kind  of  a  minister  to 
suit  his  purposes.  Armstrong  had  not  done  this.  Although 
a  man  of  some  ability  and  military  information,  Armstrong 
lacked  conventional  morals,  and  was  the  possessor  of  objec- 
tionable peculiarities.  He  never  won  either  the  confidence 
or  the  respect  of  Madison.  He  not  only  did  harsh  things  in 
a  harsh  way,  but  he  had  a  caustic  tongue,  and  a  tone  of  ir- 
reverence whenever  he  estimated  the  capacity  of  a  Virginia 
statesman.  On  the  other  hand,  Tompkins  had  gentleness, 
and  that  refined  courtesy,  amounting  almost  to  tenderness, 
which  seemed  so  necessary  in  successfully  dealing  with 
Madison. 

The  desire  to  be  first  in  every  path  of  political  success  had 
become  such  a  passion  in  Tompkins'  nature  that  the  question 
presented  by  the  President's  invitation  found  an  answer 
in  the  immediate  impulses  of  his  ambition.  No  doubt  his 
duties  as  Governor  and  the  importance  of  his  remaining 
through  the  impending  crisis  appealed  to  him,  but  they  did 
not  control  his  answer.  He  wanted  to  be  President,  and  he 
was  willing  to  sacrifice  anything  or  anybody  to  secure  the 
prize.  So,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  declined  Madison's 
gracious  offer,  since  the  experience  of  Northern  men  with 
Virginia  Presidents  did  not  encourage  the  belief  that  the 
Presidency  was  reached  through  the  Cabinet.^  Yet,  had 
Tompkins  fully  appreciated,  as  he  did  after  it  was  too  late, 
the  importance  of  a  personal  and  pleasant  acquaintance 
with  the  Virginia  statesman  and  the  other  men  who  con- 
trolled congressional  caucuses,  he  would  undoubtedly  have 
entered  Madison's  Cabinet.  As  the  ranking,  and,  save  Mon- 
roe, the  oldest  of  the  President's  advisers,  he  would  have  had 
two  years  in  which  to  make  himself  popular,  a  sufficient 
time,  surely,  for  one  having  the  prestige  of  a  great  war  gov- 
*  Henry  Adams,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  8,  p.  163. 


1815]  MADISON    WOUNDS    TOMPKINS  239 

ernor,  with  gentleness  of  manner  and  sweetness  of  temper  to 
disarm  all  opposition  and  to  conciliate  even  the  fiercest  of 
politicians.  Fifteen  years  later  Martin  Van  Buren  resigned 
the  governorship  to  go  to  the  head  of  Jackson's  Cabinet,  and 
it  made  him  President. 

It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  Madison  had  it  in  mind  to 
make  Tompkins  his  successor.  He  had  little  liking  for  his 
jealous  secretary  of  state  who  had  opposed  his  nomination 
in  1808,  criticised  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  forced  the  re- 
tirement of  cabinet  colleagues  and  the  removal  of  favourite 
army  officers — who  had,  in  a  word,  dominated  the  President 
until  the  latter  became  almost  as  tired  of  him  as  of  Arm- 
strong. But,  as  the  time  approached  for  the  nomination  of 
a  new  Executive,  Madison's  jealous  regard  for  Virginia,  as 
well  as  his  knowledge  of  Monroe's  fitness,  induced  him  to 
sustain  the  candidate  from  his  own  State.  This  was  notice 
to  federal  office-holders  in  New  York  to  get  into  line  for  the 
Virginian ;  and  very  soon  some  of  Tompkins'  closest  friends 
began  falling  away.  To  add  to  the  Governor's  unhappiness, 
the  Administration,  repeating  its  tactics  toward  the  Clintons 
in  1808  and  1812,  began  exalting  his  enemies.  In  sustaining 
DeWitt  Clinton's  aspirations  Solomon  Southwick  had  ac- 
tively opposed  the  Virginia  dynasty  and  bitterly  assailed 
Tompkins  and  Spencer  for  their  desertion  of  the  eminent 
New  Yorker.  For  three  years  he  had  practically  excluded 
himself  from  the  Kepublican  party,  criticising  the  war  with 
the  severity  of  a  Federalist,  and  continually  animadverting 
upon  the  conduct  of  the  President  and  the  Governor;  but 
Monroe's  influence  now  made  this  peppery  editor  of  the 
Register  postmaster  at  Albany,  turning  his  paper  into  an 
ardent  advocate  of  the  Virginian's  promotion.  The  Gover- 
nor, who  had  openly  encouraged  such  a  policy  when  DeWitt 
Clinton  sought  the  Presidency,  now  felt  the  Virginia  knife 
entering  his  own  vitals. 

Van  Buren's  part  in  Tompkins'  disappointment,  although 
not  active,  showed  the  shrewdness  of  a  clever  politician.  He 
had  learned  something  of  national  politics  since  he  advo- 


240  CLINTON  OVERTHROWN  [Chap.  xxi. 

cated  the  candidacy  of  DeWitt  Clinton  so  enthusiastically 
lour  years  before.  He  knew  the  Governor  was  seriously  bent 
upon  being  President,  and  that  his  friends  throughout  the 
State  were  joining  in  the  bitterness  of  the  old  Clinton  cry 
that  Virginia  had  ruled  long  enough — a  cry  which  old  John 
Adams  had  taken  up,  declaring  that  ''My  son  will  never  have 
a  chance  until  the  last  Virginian  is  laid  in  the  graveyard ;" 
but  Van  Buren  knew,  also,  that  few  New  Yorkers  in  Wash- 
ington had  any  hope  of  Tompkins'  success.  It  was  the  situa- 
tion of  1812  over  again.  Tompkins  was  personally  unknown 
to  the  country ;  Crawford  and  Monroe  were  national  leaders 
of  wide  acquaintance,  who  practically  divided  the  strength 
of  their  party.  Could  Van  Buren  have  made  Tompkins  the 
President,  he  would  have  done  so  without  hesitation;  but 
he  had  little  disposition  to  tie  himself  up,  as  he  did  with 
Clinton  in  1812,  and  let  Crawford,  with  Spencer's  assistance, 
take  the  office  and  hand  the  patronage  of  New  York  over  to 
the  Judge.  The  Kinderhook  statesman,  therefore,  declared 
for  Tompkins,  and  carried  the  Legislature  for  him  in  spite 
of  Spencer's  support  of  Crawford ;  then,  with  the  wariness  of 
an  old  campaigner,  he  prevented  New  York  congress- 
men from  expressing  any  preference,  although  three-fourths 
of  them  favoured  Crawford.  When  the  congressional 
caucus  finally  met  to  select  a  candidate,  Van  Buren  had  the 
situation  so  muddled  that  it  is  not  known  to  this  day  just 
how  the  New  York  congressmen  did  vote.  Monroe,  however, 
was  not  unmindful  of  the  service  rendered  him.  After  the 
latter's  nomination,  Tompkins  was  named  for  Vice  Presi- 
dent ;  and  if  he  did  not  resent  taking  second  place,  as  George 
Clinton  did  in  1808,  it  was  because  the  Vice  Presidency  of- 
fered changed  conditions,  enlarged  acquaintance,  and  one 
step  upward  on  the  political  ladder. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

CLINTON'S   RISE  TO  POWER 

1815-1817 

There  was  never  a  time,  probably,  when  the  white  man, 
conversant  with  the  rivers  and  lakes  of  New  York,  did  not 
talk  of  a  continuous  passage  by  water  from  Lake  Erie  to  the 
sea.    As  early  as  1724,  when  Cadwallader  Golden  was  sur- 
veyor-general of  the  colony,  he  declared  the  opportunity  for 
inland  navigation  in  New  York  without  a  parallel  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world,  and  as  the  Mohawk  Valley,  reaching 
out  toward  the  lakes  of  Oneida  and  Cayuga,  and  connecting 
by  easy  grades  with  the  Genesee  River  beyond,  opened  upon 
his  vision,  it  filled  him  with  admiration.     Even  then    the 
thrifty  settler,  pushing  his  way  into  the  picturesque  country 
of  the  Iroquis,  had  determined  to  pre-empt  the  valleys  whose 
meanderings  furnished  the  blackest  loam  and  richest  mead- 
ows, and  whose  gently  receding  foot-hills  offered  sites  for  the 
most  attractive  homes  in  tbe  vicinity  of  satisfactory  and  en- 
during markets.     It  was  this  scene  that  impressed  Joseph 
Carver  in  1776.    Carver  was  an  explorer.    He  had  traversed 
the  country  from  New  York  to  Green  Bay,  and  looking  back 
upon  the  watery  path  he  saw  nothing  to  prevent  the  great 
Northwest  from  being  connected  with  the  ocean  by  means 
of  canals  and  the  natural  waterways  of  New  York.    In  one 
of  the  rhetorical  flights  of  his  young  manhood,  Gouverneur 
Morris  declared  that  ''at  no  distant  day  the  waters  of  the 
great  inland  seas  would,  by  the  aid  of  man,  break  through 
their  barriers  and  mingle  with  those  of  the  Hudson."  George 
Washington  had  visions  of  the  same  vast  system  as  he  trav- 
ersed the  State,  in  1783,  with  George  Clinton,  on  his  way 
to  the  headwaters  of  the  Susquehanna. 

241 


242  CLINTON'S  EISE  TO  POWEE       [Chap.  xxii. 

These  were  the  dreams  of  statesmen,  whose  realisation, 
however,  was  yet  far,  very  far,  away.  In  1768,  long  after 
''Old  Silver  Locks"  had  become  the  distinguished  lieutenant- 
governor,  he  induced  Sir  Henry  Moore,  the  gay  and  affable 
successor  of  Governor  Monckton,  to  ascend  the  Mohawk  for 
the  supreme  purpose  of  projecting  a  canal  around  Little 
Falls.  Sixteen  years  later,  in  1784,  the  Legislature  tendered 
Christopher  Colles  the  entire  profits  of  the  navigation  of 
the  river  if  he  would  improve  it;  yet  work  did  not  follow 
words.  It  was  easy  to  see  what  might  be  done,  but  the  man 
did  not  appear  who  could  do  it.  In  1791,  George  Clinton 
took  a  hand,  securing  the  incorporation  of  a  company  to 
open  navigation  from  the  Hudson  to  Lake  Ontario.  The  com- 
pany completed  three  sections  of  a  canal — aggregating  six 
miles  in  length,  with  five  leaky  locks — at  a  cost  of  four  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars,  but  the  price  of  transportation  was 
not  cheapened,  nor  the  time  shortened.  This  seemed  to  end 
all  money  effort.  Other  canal  companies  were  organised, 
one  to  build  between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Champlain,  an- 
other to  connect  the  Oswego  River  with  Cayuga  and  Seneca 
lakes;  but  the  projects  came  to  nothing.  Finally,  in  1805, 
the  Legislature  authorised  Simeon  DeWitt,  the  surveyor-gen- 
eral, to  cause  the  several  routes  to  be  accurately  surveyed; 
and,  after  he  had  reported  the  feasibility  of  constructing  a 
canal  without  serious  difficulty  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hud- 
son, a  commission  of  seven  men,  appointed  in  1810,  estimated 
the  cost  of  such  construction  at  five  million  dollars.  It  was 
hoped  the  general  government  would  assist  in  making  up  this 
sum;  but  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  war,  into  which 
the  country  was  rapidly  drifting,  would  use  up  the  national 
surplus,  while  rival  projects  divided  attention  and  lessened 
the  enthusiasm.  Efforts  to  secure  a  right  of  way,  developed 
the  avarice  of  landowners,  who  demanded  large  damages 
for  the  privilege.  Thus,  discouragement  succeeded  discour- 
agement until  a  majority  of  the  earlier  friends  of  the  canal 
gave  up  in  despair. 

But  there  was  one  man  who  did  not  weaken.      DeWitt 


1816]  GKEATER   BUFFALO  243 

Clinton  had  been  made  a  member  of  the  Canal  Commission 
in  1810,  and  with  Gouverneur  Morris,  Peter  B.  Porter  and 
other  associates,  he  explored  the  entire  route,  keeping  a 
diary  and  carefully  noting  each  obstacle  in  the  way.  In 
1811,  he  introduced  and  forced  the  passage  of  a  bill  clothing 
the  commission  with  full  power  to  act;  and,  afterward,  he 
visited  Washington  with  Gouverneur  Morris  to  obtain  aid 
from  Congress.  Then  came  the  war,  and,  later,  in  1815, 
Clinton's  overthrow  and  retirement. 

This  involuntary  leisure  gave  Clinton  just  the  time 
needed  to  hasten  the  work  which  was  to  transmit  his  name 
to  later  generations.  Bitterly  mortified  over  his  defeat,  he 
retired  to  a  farm  at  Newton  on  Long  Island,  where  he  lived 
for  a  time  in  strict  seclusion,  indulging,  it  was  said,  too 
freely  in  strong  drink.  But  if  Clinton  lacked  patience,  and 
temporarily,  perhaps,  the  virtue  of  temperance,  he  did  not 
lack  force  of  will  and  strength  of  intellect.  He  corresponded 
with  men  of  influence;  sought  the  assistance  of  capitalists; 
held  public  meetings;  and  otherwise  endeavoured  to  enlist 
the  co-operation  of  people  who  would  be  benefited,  and  to 
arouse  a  public  sentiment  which  should  overcome  doubt  and 
stir  into  activity  men  of  force  and  foresight.  Writing  from 
Buffalo,  in  July,  181G,  he  declared  that  "in  all  human  prob- 
ability, before  the  passing  away  of  the  present  generation, 
Buffalo  will  be  the  second  city  in  the  State."^  A  month 
later,  having  examined  ''the  land  and  the  water  with  scruti- 
nising eye,  superintending  our  operations  and  exploring  all 
our  facilities  and  embarrassments"  from  the  great  drop  at 
Lockport  to  the  waters  of  the  Mohawk  at  Utica,  he  again 
refers  to  the  future  Queen  City  of  the  Lakes  with  prophetic 
power.  "Buffalo  is  to  be  the  point  of  beginning,  and  in 
fifty  years  it  will  be  next  to  New  York  in  wealth  and 
population."^ 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  statesman  endowed  with  less  genius 

^  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  411. 

'  Ibid.,  Vol.  50,  p.  411. 


244  CLINTON'S  KISE  TO  POWER       [Chap.  xxii. 

than  Clinton  could  have  kept  the  project  alive  during  this 
period  of  indiflference  and  discouragement.  Even  Thomas 
Jefferson  doubted  the  feasibility  of  the  plan,  declaring  that 
it  was  a  century  in  advance  of  the  age.  "I  confess,"  wrote 
Rufus  King,  long  after  its  construction  had  become  assured, 
*'that  looking  at  the  distance  between  Erie  and  the  Hudson, 
and  taking  into  view  the  hills  and  valleys  and  rivers  and 
morasses  over  which  the  canal  must  pass,  I  have  felt  some 
doubts  whether  the  unaided  resources  of  the  State  would  be 
competent  to  its  execution."^  But  Clinton  had  a  nature  and 
a  spirit  which  inclined  him  to  favour  daring  plans,  and  he 
seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind  that  nothing  should  hinder 
him  from  carrying  out  the  enterprise  he  had  at  heart. 

In  the  end,  he  compelled  the  acceptance  of  his  project  by 
a  stroke  of  happy  audacity.  A  great  meeting  of  New  York 
merchants,  held  in  the  autumn  of  1815,  appointed  him  chair- 
man of  a  committee  to  memorialise  the  Legislature.  With 
a  fund  of  information,  obtained  by  personal  inspection  of  the 
route,  he  set  forth  with  rhetorical  effect  and  great  clearness 
the  inestimable  advantages  that  must  come  to  city  and  to 
State;  and, with  the  ease  of  a  financier, inspired  with  sounder 
views  than  had  been  observed  in  the  care  of  his  own  estate, 
he  demonstrated  the  manner  of  securing  abundant  funds  for 
the  great  work.  "If  the  project  of  a  canal,"  he  said,  in  con- 
clusion, "was  intended  to  advance  the  views  of  individuals, 
or  to  foment  the  divisions  of  party;  if  it  promoted  the  in- 
terests of  a  few  at  the  expense  of  the  prosperity  of  the  many ; 
if  its  benefits  were  limited  to  place,  or  fugitive  as  to  dura- 
tion; then,  indeed,  it  might  be  received  with  cold  indiffer- 
ence or  treated  with  stern  neglect ;  but  the  overflowing  bless- 
ings from  this  great  fountain  of  public  good  and  national 
abundance  will  be  as  extensive  as  our  own  country  and  as 
durable  as  time.  It  may  be  confidently  asserted  that  this 
canal,  as  to  the  extent  of  its  route,  as  to  the  countries  which 
it  connects,  and  as  to  the  consequences  which  it  will  produce, 

'Charles  R.  King,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6, 
p.  97. 


1816]  A   GKEAT    TRIUMPH  245 

is  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  mankind.  It  remains 
for  a  free  state  to  create  a  new  era  in  history,  and  to  erect  a 
work  more  stupendous,  more  magnificent,  and  more  benefi- 
cial than  has  hitherto  been  achieved  by  the  human  race." 

When  the  people  heard  and  read  this  memorial,  monster 
mass-meetings,  held  at  Albany  and  other  points  along  the 
proposed  waterway,  gave  vent  to  acclamations  of  joy;  and 
Clinton  was  welcomed  whenever  and  wherever  he  appeared. 
These  marks  of  public  favour  were  by  no  means  confined  to 
the  lower  classes.  Men  of  large  property  openly  espoused 
his  cause;  and  when  the  Legislature  convened,  in  January, 
1816,  a  new  commission,  with  Clinton  at  its  head,  was 
authorised  to  make  surveys  and  estimates,  receive  grants 
and  donations,  and  report  to  the  next  Legislature. 

It  was  a  great  triumph  for  Clinton.  He  went  to  Albany 
a  political  outcast,  he  returned  to  New  York  gilded  with  the 
first  rays  of  a  new  and  rising  career,  destined  to  be  as  re- 
markable as  the  most  romantic  story  belonging  to  the  early 
days  of  the  last  century.  To  make  his  success  the  more  con- 
spicuous, it  became  known,  before  the  legislative  session 
ended,  that  his  quarrel  with  Spencer  had  been  settled.  Spen- 
cer's wife,  who  was  Clinton's  sister,  had  earnestly  striven 
to  bring  them  together;  but  neither  Spencer  nor  Clinton  was 
made  of  the  stuff  likely  to  allow  family  affection  to  interfere 
with  the  promotion  of  their  careers.  As  time  went  on,  how- 
ever, it  became  more  and  more  evident  to  Spencer  that  some 
alliance  must  be  formed  against  the  increasing  influence  of 
Van  Buren  and  Tompkins;  and,  with  peace  once  declared 
with  Clinton,  their  new  friendship  began  just  where  the  old 
alliance  left  off.  In  an  instant,  like  quarrelling  lovers, 
estrangement  was  forgotten  and  their  interests  and  ambi- 
tions became  mutual.  Of  all  Clinton's  critics,  Spencer  had 
been  the  meanest  and  fiercest ;  of  all  his  friends,  he  was  now 
the  warmest  and  most  enthusiastic.  To  turn  Clinton's  ene- 
mies into  friends  was  as  earnestly  and  daringly  undertaken 
by  Spencer,  as  the  old-time  work  of  turning  his  friends  into 
enemies;  and  before  the  summer  of  1816  had  advanced  into 


246  CLINTON'S  RISE  TO  POWER       [Chap.  xxii. 

the  sultry  days  of  August,  Spencer  boldly  proclaimed  Clin- 
ton his  candidate  for  governor  to  take  the  place  of  Tompkins, 
who  was  to  become  Vice  President  on  the  4th  of  March,  1817. 
It  was  an  audacious  political  move;  and  one  of  less  daring 
mind  might  well  have  hesitated ;  but  it  is  hardly  too  much  to 
say  of  Spencer,  that  he  combined  in  himself  all  the  qualities 
of  daring,  foresight,  energy,  enterprise,  and  cool,  calculating 
sagacity,  which  must  be  united  in  order  to  make  a  consum- 
mate political  leader. 

Tompkins,  like  Jefferson,  had  never  taken  kindly  to  the 
canal  project.  In  his  message  to  the  Legislature,  in  Febru- 
ary, 1816,  he  simply  suggested  that  it  rested  with  them  to 
determine  whether  the  scheme  was  sufficiently  important  to 
demand  the  appropriation  of  some  part  of  the  revenues  of  the 
State  "without  imposing  too  great  a  burden  upon  our  con- 
stituents,"* The  great  meetings  held  in  the  preceding  au- 
tumn had  forced  this  recognition  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
project;  but  his  carefully  measured  words,  and  his  failure 
to  express  an  opinion  as  to  its  wisdom  or  desirability,  chilled 
some  of  the  enthusiasm  formerly  exhibited  for  him.  To  add 
to  the  people's  disappointment  and  chagrin,  the  Governor 
omitted  all  mention  of  the  subject  on  the  5th  of  November, 
when  the  Legislature  assembled  to  choose  presidential  elec- 
tors— an  omission  which  he  repeated  on  the  21st  of 
January,  1817,  when  the  Legislature  met  in  regular  session, 
although  the  construction  of  a  canal  was  just  then  attract- 
ing more  attention  than  all  other  questions  before  the  pub- 
lic. If  Clinton  failed  to  realise  the  loss  of  popularity  that 
would  follow  his  loss  of  the  Presidency  in  1812,  Tompkins 
certainly  failed  to  appreciate  the  reaction  that  would  follow 
his  repudiation  of  the  canal. 

When  the  Legislature  convened,  the  new  Canal  Commis- 
sion, through  DeWitt  Clinton,  presented  an  exhaustive  re- 
port, estimating  the  cost  of  the  Erie  canal,  three  hundred 
and  fifty-three  miles  long,  forty  feet  wide  at  the  surface,  and 
twenty-eight  feet  at  the  bottom,  with  seventy-seven  locks,  at 
*  Governors^  Speeches,  February  2,  1816,  p.  132. 


1817]  VAN  BUREN'S   CRITICISM  247 

$4,571,813.  The  cost  of  the  Champlain  canal  was  fixed  at 
$871,000.  It  was  suggested  that  money,  secured  by  loan, 
could  be  subsequently  repaid  without  taxation;  and  on  the 
strength  of  this  report,  a  bill  for  the  construction  of  both 
canals  was  immediately  introduced  in  the  two  houses.  This 
action  produced  a  profound  impression  throughout  the  State. 
The  only  topics  discussed  from  New  York  to  Buffalo,  were 
the  magnificent  scheme  of  opening  a  navigable  waterway  be- 
tween the  Hudson  and  the  lakes,  and  the  desirability  of  hav- 
ing the  man  build  it  who  had  made  its  construction  possible. 
This,  of  course,  meant  Clinton  for  governor. 

Talk  of  Clinton's  candidacy  was  very  general  when  the 
Legislature  assembled,  in  January,  1817;  and,  although  Van 
Buren  had  hitherto  attached  little  importance  to  it,  the  dis- 
covery that  a  strong  and  considerable  part  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, backed  by  the  stalwart  Spencer,  now  openly  favoured 
the  nomination  of  the  canal  champion,  set  him  to  work  plan- 
ning a  way  of  escape.  His  suggestion  that  Tompkins  serve 
as  governor  and  vice  president  found  little  more  favour  than 
the  scheme  of  allowing  Lieutenant-Governor  Taylor  to  act  as 
governor ;  for  the  former  plan  was  as  objectionable  to  Tomp- 
kins and  the  people,  as  the  latter  was  plainly  illegal.  It  is 
doubtful  if  Van  Buren  seriously  approved  either  expedient ; 
but  it  gave  him  time  to  impress  upon  party  friends  the  ob- 
jections to  Clinton's  restoration  to  power.  He  did  not  go 
back  to  1812.  That  would  have  condemned  himself.  But  he 
recalled  the  ex-Mayor's  open,  bitter  opposition  to  Tompkins 
in  1813,  and  the  steady  support  given  him  by  the  Federalists. 
In  proof  of  this  statement  he  pointed  to  the  present  indispo- 
sition of  Federalists  to  oppose  Clinton  if  nominated,  and 
their  avowed  declarations  that  Clinton's  views  paralleled 
their  own. 

Van  Buren  had  shown,  from  his  first  entrance  into  public 
life,  a  remarkable  faculty  for  winning  men  to  his  own  way  of 
thinking.  His  criticism  of  Clinton  was  now  directed  with 
characteristic  sagacity  and  skill.  His  argument,  that  the 
object  of  those  who  sustained  Clinton  was  to  establish  a  con- 


248  CLINTON'S  KISE  TO  POWEK       [Chap.  xxii. 

spiracy  with  the  Federalists  at  home  and  abroad,  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  nation  as  well  as 
in  the  State,  seemed  justified  by  the  open  support  of  William 
W.  Van  Ness,  the  gifted  young  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
Further  to  confirm  his  contention,  Jonas  Piatt,  now  of  the 
Supreme  bench,  and  Jacob  Rutsen  Van  Rensselaer  of  Colum- 
bia, a  bold,  active,  and  most  zealous  partisan,  who  had  served 
in  the  Legislature  and  as  secretary  of  state,  made  no 
secret  of  their  intention  to  indorse  Clinton's  nomination, 
and,  if  necessary,  to  ride  over  the  State  to  secure  his  election. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances  nothing  could  discredit  the 
Clinton  agitation,  with  the  more  reasonable  part  of  the 
Republican  legislators,  more  than  Van  Buren's  charge, 
strengthened  by  such  supporting  evidence. 

The  canal  influences  of  the  time,  however,  were  too  strong 
for  any  ingenuity  of  argument,  or  adroitness  in  the  raising 
of  alarm,  to  prevail ;  and  so  the  skilful  manager  turned  his 
attention  to  Joseph  G.  Yates,  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
as  an  opposing  candidate  who  might  be  successful.  Yates 
belonged  to  the  old-fashioned  American  type  of  handsome 
men.  He  had  a  large,  shapely  head,  a  prominent  nose,  full 
lips,  and  a  face  cleanly  shaven  and  rosy.  His  bearing  was 
excellent,  his  voice,  manner,  and  everything  about  him  be- 
spoke the  gentleman;  but  neither  in  aspect  nor  manner  of 
speech  did  he  measure  up  to  his  real  desire  for  political  pre- 
ferment. Yet  he  had  many  popular  qualities  which  com- 
mended him  to  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party.  He  was  a 
man  of  abstemious  habits  and  boundless  industry,  whose 
courtesy  and  square  dealing  made  him  a  favourite.  Few  er- 
rors of  a  political  character  could  be  charged  to  his  account. 
He  had  favoured  Clinton  for  President;  he  had  supported 
Tompkins  and  the  war  with  great  zeal,  and,  to  the  full  ex- 
tent of  his  ability  and  influence,  he  had  proved  an  ardent 
friend  of  the  canal  policy. 

It  had  been  a  trait  of  the  Yates  family — ever  since  its 
founder,  an  enterprising  English  yeoman,  a  native  of  Leeds 
in  Yorkshire,  had  settled  in  the  colony  during  the  troublous 


1817]         :a.  heeo  of  the  war  of  1812  249 

days  of  Charles  I. — to  espouse  any  movement  or  improve- 
ment which  should  benefit  the  people.  Joseph  had  already 
shown  his  activity  and  usefulness  in  founding  Union  Col- 
lege ;  he  regarded  the  proposed  canal  as  a  long  step  in  the  de- 
velopment and  prosperity  of  the  State;  but  he  did  not  take 
kindly  to  Van  Buren's  suggestion  that  he  become  a  candidate 
for  governor  against  Clinton.  In  this  respect  he  was  unlike 
Robert,  chief  justice,  his  father's  cousin,  who  first  ran  for 
governor  on  the  Federalist  ticket  at  the  suggestion  of  Ham- 
ilton, and,  three  years  later,  as  an  anti-Federalist  candidate 
at  the  suggestion  of  George  Clinton,  suffering  defeat  on  both 
occasions.  He  was,  however,  as  ambitious  as  the  old  Chief 
Justice;  and,  had  the  time  seemed  ripe,  he  would  have  re- 
sponded to  the  call  of  the  Kinderhook  statesman  as  readily 
as  Robert  did  to  the  appeals  of  Hamilton  and  George 
Clinton. 

Peter  B.  Porter  was  more  willing.  He  belonged  to  the 
Tompkins-Van  Buren  faction  which  nourished  the  hope  that 
the  soldier,  who  had  recently  borne  the  flag  of  his  country  in 
triumph  on  several  battlefields,  would  carry  ofif  the  prize,  al- 
though the  caucus  was  to  convene  in  less  than  forty-eight 
hours.  There  could  be  no  doubt  of  General  Porter's  strength 
with  the  people.  He  had  served  his  State  and  his  country 
with  a  fidelity  that  must  forever  class  his  name  with  the 
bravest  officers  of  the  War  of  1812.  He  rode  a  horse  like  a 
centaur ;  and,  wherever  he  appeared,  whether  equipped  for  a 
fight,  or  off  for  a  hunt  through  the  forests  of  the  Niagara 
frontier,  his  easy,  familiar  manners  surrounded  him  with 
hosts  of  friends.  The  qualities  that  made  him  a  famous  sol- 
dier made  him,  also,  a  favoured  politician.  As  county  clerk, 
secretary  of  state,  and  congressman,  he  had  taken  the  keen- 
est interest  in  the  great  questions  that  agitated  the  political 
life  of  the  opening  century ;  and  as  a  canal  commissioner,  in 
1811,  he  had  supported  DeWitt  Clinton  with  all  the  energy 
of  an  enthusiast. 

At  this  time  Porter  was  forty-four  years  old.  He  was  a 
graduate  of  Yale,  a  student  of  the  law,  and  as  quick  in  Intel- 


250  CLINTON'S  EISE  TO  POWER       [Chap.  xxii. 

ligence  as  he  was  pleasing  of  countenance.  His  speeches,  en- 
livened with  gleams  of  humour,  rays  of  fancy,  and  flashes  of 
eloquence,  expressed  the  thoughts  of  an  honourable,  upright 
statesman  who  was  justly  esteemed  of  the  first  order  of  in- 
tellect. Certainly,  if  any  one  could  take  the  nomination 
from  DeWitt  Clinton  it  was  Peter  B,  Porter. 

It  is  possible,  had  the  nomination  been  left  exclusively 
to  Republican  members  of  the  Legislature,  as  it  had  been  for 
forty  years.  Porter  might  have  been  the  choice  of  his  party. 
Spencer,  however,  evidently  feared  Van  Buren's  subtle  con- 
trol of  the  Legislature ;  for,  early  in  the  winter,  he  began  en- 
couraging Republicans  living  in  counties  represented  by 
Federalists,  to  demand  a  voice  in  the  nominating  caucus.  It 
was  a  novel  idea.  Up  to  this  time,  governors  and  lieutenant- 
governors  had  been  nominated  by  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture; yet  the  plan  now  suggested  was  so  manifestly  fair  that 
few  dared  oppose  it.  Why  should  the  Republicans  of  Albany 
County,  it  was  asked,  be  denied  the  privilege  of  participating 
in  the  nomination  of  a  governor  simply  because,  being  in  a 
minority,  they  were  unrepresented  in  the  Legislature?  There 
was  no  good  reason;  and,  although  Van  Buren  well  under- 
stood that  such  counties  would  return  delegates  generally 
favourable  to  Clinton,  he  was  powerless  to  defeat  the  reform. 
The  result  was  the  beginning  of  nominating  conventions, 
composed  of  delegates  selected  by  the  people,  and  the  nomi- 
nation of  DeWitt  Clinton. 

The  blow  to  Van  Buren  was  a  severe  one.  "An  obscure 
painter  of  the  Flemish  school,"  wrote  Clinton  to  his  friend 
and  confidant,  Henry  Post,  "has  made  a  very  ludicrous  and 
grotesque  representation  of  Jonah  immediately  after  he  was 
ejected  from  the  whale's  belly.  He  is  represented  as  having  a 
very  bewildered  and  dismal  physiognomy,  not  knowing  from 
whence  he  came  nor  to  what  place  bound.  Just  so  looks 
Van  Buren,  the  leader  of  the  opposition  party."^  Yet  Van 
Buren  seems  to  have  taken  his  defeat  with  more  serenity  and 

'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  412. 


1817]  TAMMANY  OPPOSES  THE  CANAL  251 

dignity  than  might  have  been  expected.  Statesmen  of  far 
nobler  character  have  allowed  themselves  to  indulge  in  futile 
demonstrations  of  disappointment  and  anger,  but  Van  Buren 
displayed  a  remarkable  evenness  of  temper.  He  advocated 
with  ability  and  sincerity  the  bill  to  construct  the  canal, 
which  passed  the  Legislature  on  April  15,  the  last  day  of  the 
session.  Indeed,  of  the  eighteen  senators  who  favoured  the 
project,  five  were  bitter  anti-Glintonians  whose  support  was 
largely  due  to  Van  Baren. 

In  this  vote,  the  noes,  in  both  Assembly  and  Senate,  came 
from  Clinton's  opponents, including  the  Tammany  delegation 
and  their  friends.  From  the  outset  Tammany,  by  solemn 
resolutions,  had  denounced  the  canal  project  as  impractical 
and  chimerical,  declaring  it  fit  only  for  a  ditch  in  which  to 
bury  Clinton.  At  Albany  its  representatives  greeted  the 
measure  for  its  construction  with  a  burst  of  mockery ;  and, 
by  placing  one  obstacle  after  another  in  its  way,  nearly  de- 
feated it  in  tlie  Senate.  It  was  during  this  contest  that  the 
friends  of  Clinton  called  his  opponents  '^Bucktails" — the 
name  growing  out  of  a  custom,  which  obtained  on  certain 
festival  occasions,  when  leading  members  of  Tammany  wore 
the  tail  of  a  deer  on  their  hats. 

Refusing  to  accept  DeWitt  Clinton,  Tammany  made  Peter 
B,  Porter  its  candidate  for  governor.  There  is  ample  evidence 
that  Porter  never  concealed  the  chagrin  or  disappointment 
of  defeat;  but,  though  the  distinguished  General  must  have 
known  that  his  name  was  printed  upon  the  Tammany  ticket 
and  sent  into  every  county  in  the  State,  he  did  not  co-operate 
with  Tammany  in  its  effort  to  elect  him.  Other  defections 
existed  in  the  party.  Peter  R.  Livingston  seemed  to  concen- 
trate in  himself  all  the  prejudices  of  his  family  against  the 
Clintons.  Moses  I.  Cantine  of  Catskill,  a  brother-in-law  of 
Van  Buren,  though  perhaps  incapable  of  personal  bitterness, 
opposed  Clinton  with  such  zeal  that  he  refused  to  vote  either 
for  a  gubernatorial  candidate,  or  for  the  construction  of  a 
canal.  Samuel  Young,  who  seemed  to  nourish  a  deep-seated 
dislike  of  Clinton,  never  tired  of  disparaging  the  ex-Mayor. 


252  CLINTOX'S  KISE  TO  POWER        [Chap.  xxn. 

He  apparently  took  keen  pleasure  in  holding  up  to  ridicule 
and  in  satirising,  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  his  ponderous 
pedantries,  his  solemn  aflfectation  of  profundity  and  wisdom, 
his  narrow-mindedness,  and  his  intolerable  and  transparent 
egotism.  But  the  canal  sentiment  was  all  one  way.  With 
the  help  of  the  Federalists,  who  declined  to  make  an  oppos- 
ing nomination,  Clinton  swept  the  State  like  a  cyclone,  re- 
ceiving nearly  forty-four  thousand  votes  out  of  a  total  of 
forty-five  thousand.®  Porter  had  less  than  fifteen  hundred. 
Clinton's  inauguration  as  governor  occurred  on  the  first 
day  of  July,  1817,  and  three  days  later  he  began  the  con- 
struction of  the  Erie  canal. 

'  DeWitt  Clinton,  43,310;  Peter  B.  Porter,  1479.— Civil  List,  State  of 
New  York  (1887),  p.  166. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
BUCKTAIL  AND  CLINTONIAN 

1817-1819 

DeWitt  Clinton  bad  now  reached  the  highest  point  in 
his  political  career.  He  was  not  merely  all-powerful  in  the 
administration,  he  was  the  administration.  He  delighted  in 
the  consciousness  that  he  was  looked  up  to  by  men ;  that  his 
success  was  fixed  as  a  star  in  the  firmament;  and  that  the 
greatest  work  of  his  life  lay  before  him.  He  was  still  in  the 
prime  of  his  days,  only  forty-eight  years  old,  with  a  mar- 
vellous capacity  for  work.  It  is  said  that  he  found  a  positive 
delight  in  doing  what  seemed  to  others  a  wearisome  and  ex- 
haustive tax  upon  physical  endurance.  ''The  canal,"  he 
writes  to  his  friend,  Henry  Post,  in  the  month  of  his  inau- 
guration, "is  in  a  fine  way.  Ten  miles  will  be  completely  fin- 
ished this  season,  and  all  within  the  estimate.  The  appli- 
cation of  the  simple  labour-saving  machinery  of  our  contrac- 
tors has  the  operation  of  magic.  Trees,  stumps,  and  every- 
thing vanish  before  it."^  The  exceptional  work  and  respon- 
sibility put  upon  him  during  the  construction  of  his  "big 
ditch,"  as  his  enemies  sarcastically  called  it,  might  well  have 
made  him  complain  of  the  official  burdens  he  had  to  bear; 
but  neither  by  looks  nor  words  did  he  indicate  the  slightest 
disposition  to  grumble.  Nature  had  endowed  him  with  a 
genius  for  success.  He  loved  literature,  he  delighted  in  coun- 
try life,  he  was  at  home  among  farmers,  and  with  those  in- 
clined to  science  he  analysed  the  flowers  and  turned  with 
zest  to  a  closer  study  of  rocks  and  soils.    No  man  ever  en- 

'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine^ 
Vol.  50,  p.  412. 

253 


254  BUCKTAIL  AND  CLINTONIAN     [Chap,  xxiii. 

jojed  more  thoroughly,  or  was  better  equipped  intellectually 
to  undertake  such  a  career  as  he  had  now  entered  upon.  His 
audacity,  too,  amazed  his  enemies  and  delighted  his  friends. 

But  Clinton  had  learned  nothing  of  the  art  of  political 
management  either  in  his  retirement  or  by  experience.  He 
was  the  same  domineering,  uncompromising,  intolerant  dic- 
tator, helpful  only  to  those  who  continually  sounded  his 
praises,  cold  and  distant  toward  those  who  acted  with  inde- 
pendence and  spirit.  He  had  made  his  enemies  his  footstool ; 
and  he  now  assumed  to  be  the  recognised  head  of  the  party 
whose  destinies  were  in  his  keeping  and  whose  fortunes  were 
swayed  by  his  will.  It  is,  perhaps,  too  much  to  say  that  this 
was  purely  personal  ambition.  On  the  contrary,  Clinton 
seems  to  have  acted  on  the  honest  conviction  that  he  knew 
better  than  any  other  man  how  New  York  ought  to  be  gov- 
erned, and  the  result  of  his  effort  inclines  one  to  the  opinion 
that  he  was  right  in  the  belief.  At  all  events,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  a  man  of  his  energy  and  capacity  for  onward 
movement  should  refuse  to  regulate  his  policy  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  men  that  had  recently  crushed  him  to  earth, 
and  who,  he  knew,  would  crush  him  again  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity. In  this  respect  he  was  not  different  from  Van  Buren ; 
but  Van  Buren  would  have  sought  to  placate  the  least  ob- 
jectionable of  his  opponents,  and  to  bring  to  his  support  men 
who  were  restless  under  the  domination  of  others. 

Clinton,  however,  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  would  not 
even  extend  the  olive  branch  to  Samuel  Young  after  the 
latter  had  quarrelled  with  Van  Buren.  He  preferred,  evi- 
dently, to  rely  upon  his  old  friends — even  though  some  of 
their  names  had  become  odious  to  the  party — and  upon  a 
coterie  of  brilliant  Federalists,  led  by  William  W.  Van  Ness, 
Jonas  Piatt,  and  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  with  whom  he  was  al- 
ready upon  terms  of  confidential  communication.  He  pro- 
fessed to  believe  that  the  principles  of  Republican  and  Fed- 
eralist were  getting  to  be  somewhat  undefined  in  their  char- 
acter; and  that  the  day  was  not  far  off,  if,  indeed,  it  had 
not  already  come,  when  the  Republican  party  would  break 


1818]  FORMIDABLE   RIVALS  265- 

into  two  factions,  and,  for  the  real  business  of  statesmanship, 
divide  the  Federalists  between  them.  Yet,  in  practice,  he  did 
not  act  on  this  principle.  To  the  embarrassment  of  his  Fed- 
eralist friends  he  failed  to  appoint  their  followers  to  office, 
making  it  difficult  for  them  to  explain  why  he  should  profit 
by  Federalist  support  and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  Federalist  ne- 
cessities ;  and,  to  the  surprise  of  his  most  devoted  Republican 
supporters,  he  refused  to  make  a  clean  sweep  of  the  men  in 
office  whom  he  believed  to  have  acted  against  him.  He 
quickly  dropped  the  Tammany  men  holding  places  in  New 
York  City,  and  occasionally  let  go  an  up-state  politician  at 
the  instance  of  Ambrose  Spencer,  but  with  characteristic  in- 
dependence he  disregarded  the  advice  of  his  friends  who 
urged  him  to  let  them  all  go. 

Meanwhile,  a  change  long  foreseen  by  those  who  were  in 
the  inner  political  circle  was  rapidly  approaching.  At  no 
period  of  American  history  could  such  a  man  as  Clinton  re- 
main long  in  power  without  formidable  rivals.  No  sooner, 
therefore,  had  the  Legislature  convened,  in  January,  1818, 
than  Martin  Van  Buren,  Samuel  Young,  Peter  R.  Livingston, 
Erastus  Root,  and  their  associates,  began  open  war  upon 
him.  For  a  long  time  it  had  been  a  question  whether  it  was 
to  be  Clinton  and  Van  Buren,  or  Van  Buren  and  Clinton. 
Van  Buren  had  been  growing  every  day  in  power  and  influ- 
ence. Seven  years  before  Elisha  Williams  had  sneered  at 
him  as  Little  Matty.  *Toor  little  Matty !"  he  wrote,  "what 
a  blessing  it  is  for  one  to  think  he  is  the  greatest  little  fellow 
in  the  world.  It  would  be  cruel  to  compel  this  man  to  esti- 
mate himself  correctly.  Inflated  with  pride,  flattered  for  his 
pertness,  caressed  for  his  assurance,  and  praised  for  his  im- 
pertinence, it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  in  a  market  where 
those  qualifications  pass  for  evidence  of  intrinsic  merit  he 
should  think  himself  great."  Williams,  great  and  brilliant 
as  he  was,  could  not  bear  with  patience  the  supremacy  which 
Van  Buren  was  all  too  certainly  obtaining.  He  struggled 
against  him,  intrigued  against  him,  and  finally  hated  and 
lampooned  him,  but  the  superiority  of  Van  Buren's  talents. 


256  BUCKTATL  AND  CLINTONIAN     [Chap.  xxni. 

as  a  managing  politician  was  destined  to  make  him  pre-emi- 
nent in  the  State  and  in  the  nation. 

That  Van  Buren  was  not  always  honourable,  the  famous 
Fellows-Allen  contest  had  recently  demonstrated.  Henry 
Fellows,  a  Federalist  candidate  for  assemblyman  in  Ontario 
County,  received  a  majority  of  thirty  votes  over  Peter  Allen, 
a  Republican;  but  because  the  former's  name  appeared  in 
his  certificate  as  Hen.  Fellows,  the  Bucktails,  guided  by  Van 
Buren,  seated  Allen,  whose  vote  was  absolutely  needed  to 
elect  a  Republican  Council  of  Appointment.  Writing  ''Hen." 
for  Henry  was  not  error;  it  was  not  even  an  inadvertence. 
Van  Buren  knew  that  it  stood  for  Henry  as  ''Wm."  did  for 
William,  or  "Jas."  for  James.  But  Van  Buren  wanted  the 
Council.  It  cannot  be  said  that  this  action  was  inconsistent 
with  the  sentiment  then  governing  the  conduct  of  parties ;  for 
the  maxim  obtained  that  "everything  is  fair  in  war."  Nev- 
ertheless, it  illuminated  Van  Buren's  character,  and  left  the 
impression  upon  some  of  his  contemporaries  that  he  was  a 
stranger  to  a  high  standard  of  political  morality. 

Probably  DeWitt  Clinton  would  have  taken  similar  advan- 
tage. But  in  practical  politics  Clinton  was  no  match  for 
the  Kinderhook  statesman.  Van  Buren  studied  the  game  like 
a  chess-player,  taking  knights  and  pawns  with  the  ease  of  a 
skilful  mover.  Clinton,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  optimist, 
who  believed  in  his  destiny.  In  the  performance  of  his  of- 
ficial duties  he  mastered  whatever  he  undertook  and  relied 
upon  the  people  for  his  support ;  and  so  long  as  he  stood  for 
internal  improvements  and  needed  reform  in  the  public  ser- 
vice, he  did  not  rely  in  vain.  Force,  clearness  and  ability 
characterised  his  state  papers.  For  years  he  had  been  a  stu- 
dent of  municipal  and  county  affairs ;  and,  in  suggesting  new 
legislation,  he  exhibited  rare  judgment  and  absolute  impar- 
tiality. A  comprehension  that  sound  finance  had  much  to 
do  with  domestic  prosperity-,  entered  into  his  review  of  the 
financial  situation — in  its  relation  to  the  construction  of 
the  canals — indicating  fulness  of  information  and  great 
clearness  as  to  existing  conditions.    Clinton  was   honestly 


1818]  CLINTON    OUTWITTED  257 

proud  of  his  canal  policy ;  more  than  once  he  declared,  with 
exultation,  that  nothing  was  more  certain  to  promote  the 
prosperity  of  the  State,  or  to  secure  to  it  the  weight  and 
authority,  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  to  which  its  wealth 
and  position  entitled  it.  Seldom  in  the  history  of  an  Ameri- 
can commonwealth  has  a  statesman  been  as  prophetic.  But 
in  managing  the  details  of  party  tactics — in  dealing  with  in- 
dividuals for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the  means  that  con- 
trol men — he  conducted  the  office  of  governor  much  as  he  did 
his  candidacy  for  President  in  1812,  without  plan,  and,  ap- 
parently, without  organisation.  With  all  his  courage,  Clin- 
ton must  have  felt  some  qualms  of  uneasiness  as  one  humilia- 
tion followed  another;  but  if  he  felt  he  did  not  show  them. 
Conscious  of  his  ability,  and  of  his  own  great  purposes,  he 
seems  to  have  borne  his  position  with  a  sort  of  proud  or 
stolid  patience. 

This  inattention  or  inability  to  attend  to  details  of  party 
management  became  painfully  apparent  at  the  opening  of 
the  Legislature  in  January,  1818,  Van  Buren  and  his  friends 
had  agreed  upon  William  Thompson  for  speaker  of  the  As- 
sembly. Thompson  was  a  young  man,  warm  in  his  passions, 
strong  in  his  prejudices,  and  of  fair  ability,  who  had  served 
two  or  three  terms  in  the  lower  house,  and  who,  it  was 
thought,  as  he  represented  a  western  district,  and,  in  opposi- 
tion to  Elisha  Williams,  had  favoured  certain  interests  in 
Seneca  County  growing  out  of  the  location  of  a  new  court- 
house, would  have  greater  strength  than  other  more  promi- 
nent Bucktails.  It  was  known,  also,  that  Thompson  had 
taken  a  violent  dislike  to  Clinton  and  could  be  relied  upon 
to  advance  any  measure  for  the  latter's  undoing.  To  secure 
his  nomination,  therefore.  Van  Buren  secretly  notified  his 
partisans  to  be  present  at  the  caucus  on  the  evening  before 
the  session  opened. 

The  Clintonians  had  talked  of  putting  up  John  Van  Ness 
Yates,  son  of  the  former  Chief  Justice,  a  ready  talker,  com- 
panionable and  brilliant,  a  gentleman  of  fine  literary  taste, 
with  an  up-and-down  political  career  due  largely  to  his  con- 


258  BUCKTAIL  AND  CLINTONIAN     [Chap.  xxm. 

sistent  following  of  Clinton.  But  the  Governor  now  wanted 
a  stronger,  more  decided  man;  and,  after  advising  with 
Spencer,  he  selected  Obadiah  German,  for  many  years  a 
leader  in  the  Assembly,  and  until  recently  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate,  with  such  a  record  for  resistance  to 
Governor  Tompkins,  and  active  complicity  with  the  Federal- 
ists who  had  aided  his  election  to  the  Assembly,  that  the 
mere  mention  ^f  his  name  to  the  Bucktails  was  like  a  fire- 
brand thrown  onto  the  roof  of  a  thatched  cottage.  German 
himself  doubted  the  wisdom  of  his  selection.  He  was  an 
old-time  fighter,  preferring  debate  on  the  floor  to  the  wield- 
ing of  a  gavel  while  other  men  disputed ;  but  the  Governor, 
with  sublime  faith  in  German's  fidelity  and  courage,  and  a 
sublimer  faith  in  his  own  power  to  make  him  speaker, 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  assemblyman's  wishes.  Had  Clinton 
now  conferred  with  his  friends  in  the  Legislature,  or  simpl^v 
urged  their  presence  at  the  caucus,  he  might  easily  have 
nominated  German  in  spite  of  his  record.  On  the  contrary, 
he  did  neither,  and  when  the  caucus  met,  of  the  seventy-five 
members  present,  forty-two  voted  for  Thompson  and  thirty- 
three  for  German.  When  too  late  Clinton  discovered  his  mis- 
take— seventeen  Clintonians  had  been  absent  and  all  the 
Bucktails  present.    The  great  Clinton  had  been  outwitted ! 

The  hearts  of  the  Bucktails  must  have  rejoiced  when  they 
heard  the  count,  especially  as  the  refusal  of  the  Clintonians 
to  make  the  nomination  unanimous  indicated  an  intention 
to  turn  to  the  Federalists  for  aid.  This  was  the  one  error 
the  Bucktails  most  desired  Clinton  to  commit;  for  it  would 
stamp  them  as  the  regular  representatives  of  the  party,  and 
reduce  the  Clintonians  to  a  faction,  irregular  in  their  meth- 
ods and  tainted  with  Federalism.  It  is  difficult  to  realise 
the  arguments  which  could  persuade  Clinton  to  take  such 
a  step.  Even  if  such  conduct  be  not  considered  a  question 
of  principle,  and  only  one  of  expediency,  he  should  have  con- 
demned it.  Yet  this  is  just  what  Clinton  did  not  do.  After 
two  days  of  balloting  he  disclosed  his  hand  in  a  motion  de- 
claring Obadiah  German  the  speaker,  and  sixty-seven  mem- 


1818]  BOLTS   A   CAUCUS   NOMINEE  259 

bers,  including  seventeen  Federalists,  voted  in  the  affirma- 
tive, while  forty-eight,  including  three  Federalists,  voted  in 
the  negative. 

"The  Assembly  met  on  Tuesday,"  wrote  John  A.  King  to 
his  father,  on  January  8,  1818,  "but  adjourned  without  choos- 
ing a  speaker.  The  next  day,  after  a  short  struggle,  Mr. 
German  was  chosen  by  the  aid  of  some  of  the  Federalists. 
1  regret  to  say  that  there  are  some  of  the  Federal  gentlemen 
and  influential  ones,  too,  who  are  deeply  pledged  to  support 
the  wanderings  fortunes  of  Mr.  Clinton.  On  this  point  the 
Federal  party  must,  if  it  has  not  already,  divide.  Once  sep- 
arated there  can  be  no  middle  course;  a  neutrality  party  in 
politics,  if  not  an  absurdity,  at  least  is  evidence  of  indeci- 
sion. We  are  not  yet  declared  enemies,  but  if  I  mistake  not, 
the  question  of  Council  and  the  choice  of  a  United  States 
senator  must,  if  these  gentlemen  persist,  decide  the  matter 
irrevocably.  Mr.  W.  Duer,  Van  Vechten,  Bunner,  Hoffman, 
and  myself  are  opposed  to  Mr.  W.  Van  Ness,  Oakley,  and  J. 
Van  Rensselaer.  Mr.  Clinton  has  found  means  to  flatter 
these  gentlemen  with  the  prospect  of  attaining  their  utmost 
wishes  by  adhering  to  and  supporting  his  administration."^ 

Clinton  committed  the  second  great  error  of  his  life  when 
he  consented  to  bolt  the  caucus  nominee  of  his  party.  It 
was  an  act  of  conscious  baseness.  He  had  not  manfully  put 
forward  his  strength.  Instead  of  managing,  he  temporised; 
instead  of  meeting  his  adversaries  with  a  will,  he  did  noth- 
ing, while  they  worked  systematically  and  in  silence.  Even 
then  he  need  not  have  entered  the  caucus;  but,  once  having 
voluntarily  entered  it,  it  was  his  plain  duty  to  support  its 
nominee.  As  a  question  of  principle  or  expediency  Clinton's 
conduct,  therefore,  admits  of  no  defence.  The  plea  that  Van 
Buren  had  secretly  assembled  the  Bucktails  in  force  neither 
justifies  nor  palliates  it;  for  the  slightest  management  on 
Clinton's  part  would  have  controlled  the  caucus  by  bringing 
together  fifty  members  instead  of  thirty-three,  and  the  slight- 

-  Charles  K.  King,  The  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol. 
6,  p.  102. 


260  BUCKTAIL   AND   CLINTONIAN      [Chap,  xxiii. 

est  inquiry  would  have  discovered  the  weakness  of  having 
only  thirty-three  present  instead  of  fifty. 

Clinton  professed  to  believe  that  the  Federalists  no  longer 
existed  as  a  party;  and  it  is  probably  true  that  he  desired 
to  create  a  party  of  his  own  out  of  its  membership,  strength- 
ened by  the  Clintonians,  and  to  leave  Tammany  and  its 
Bucktail  supporters  to  build  up  an  opposition  organisation. 
But  in  this  he  was  in  advance  of  his  time.  Though  the  day 
was  coming  when  a  majority  of  the  Clintonians  and  Feder- 
alists would  make  the  backbone  of  the  Whig  party  in  the 
Empire  State,  a  new  party  could  not  be  built  up  by  such 
methods  as  Clinton  now  introduced.  New  parties,  like  poets, 
are  born,  not  made,  and  a  love  for  principle,  not  a  desire 
for  spoils,  must  precede  their  birth.  If  Clinton  had  sincerely 
desired  a  new  organisation,  he  should  have  disclaimed  all 
connection  with  the  Republican  or  Federalist,  and  planted 
his  standard  on  the  corner-stone  of  internal  improvements, 
prepared  to  make  the  sacrifice  that  comes  to  those  who  are 
tired  of  existing  conditions  and  eager  for  new  policies  and 
new  associations.  But  Clinton  was  neither  reformer  nor 
pioneer.  He  loved  the  old  order  of  things,  the  Council  of 
Appointment,  the  Council  of  Revision,  the  Constitution  of 
1777  as  amended  by  the  convention  of  1801,  and  all  the  ma- 
chinery that  gave  power  to  the  few  and  control  to  the  boss. 
He  had  been  born  to  power.  From  his  first  entrance  into 
the  political  arena  he  had  exercised  it — first  with  the  help 
of  his  uncle  George,  afterward  with  the  assistance  of  his 
brother-in-law,  Ambrose  Spencer;  and  now  that  he  had 
swung  back  into  power  again  by  means  of  his  canal  policy, 
he  had  no  disposition  to  let  go  any  part  of  it  by  letting  go 
the  Republican  party.  What  Van  Buren  got  from  him  he 
must  take  by  votes,  not  by  gifts. 

Clinton's  flagrant  violation  of  the  caucus  rule,  that  a  mi- 
nority must  yield  to  the  majority,  not  only  broke  the  Repub- 
lican party  into  the  famous  factions  known  as  Clintonians 
and  Bucktails;  it  alarmed  local  leaders  throughout  the 
State;  made  the  rank  and  file  distrustful  of  the  Governor's 


1818]  LOSS  OF  APPOINTMENTS  261 

fealty,  and  consolidated  his  enemies,  giving  them  the  best 
of  the  argument  and  enabling  Van  Buren  to  build  up  an  or- 
ganisation against  which  the  Governor  was  ever  after  com- 
pelled to  struggle  with  varying  fortune.  Indeed,  in  the  next 
month,  Van  Buren  so  managed  the  selection  of  a  Council 
that  it  gave  Clinton  credit  for  controlling  appointments 
without  the  slightest  power  of  making  them,  so  that  the  dis- 
appointed held  him  responsible  and  the  fortunate  gave  him 
no  thanks.  Following  this  humiliation,  too,  came  the  elec- 
tion, by  one  majority,  of  Henry  Seymour,  a  bitter  opponent 
of  Clinton,  to  the  canal  commissionership  made  vacant  by 
the  resignation  of  Joseph  Ellicott.  The  Governor's  attention 
had  been  called  to  the  danger  of  his  candidate's  defeat ;  but 
with  optimistic  assurance  he  dismissed  it  as  impossible  until 
Ephraim  Hart,  just  before  the  election  occurred,  discovered 
that  the  cunning  hand  of  Van  I^uren  had  accomplished  his 
overthrow.  "A  majority  of  the  canal  commissioners  are  now 
politically  opposed  to  the  Governor,"  declared  the  Albany 
Argus,  "and  it  will  not  be  necessary  for  a  person  who  wishes 
to  obtain  employment  on  the  canal  as  agent,  contractor  or 
otherwise,  to  avow  himself  a  Clintonian."  This  exultant 
shout  meant  that  in  future  only  anti-Clintonians  would  make 
up  the  army  of  canal  employees. 

But  a  greater  coup  d'etat  was  to  come.  Van  Buren  under- 
stood well  enough  that  Clinton's  strength  with  the  people 
was  not  as  a  politician  or  Republican  leader,  but  as  a  stub- 
born, indefatigable  advocate  of  the  canal ;  and  that,  so  long 
as  the  Bucktails  opposed  his  scheme,  their  control  of  appoint- 
ments could  not  overthrow  him.  Van  Buren,  therefore,  de- 
termined to  silence  this  opposition.  Just  how  he  did  it  is 
not  of  record.  It  was  said,  at  the  time,  that  a  caucus  was 
held  of  Clinton's  opponents;  but,  however  it  was  done,  it 
must  have  required  all  Van  Buren's  strength  of  will  and  art 
of  persuasion  to  sustain  him  in  the  midst  of  so  many  dif- 
ficulties— difficulties  which  were  greatly  increased  by  the 
unfriendly  conduct  of  Erastus  Root,  and  two  or  three  sen- 
ators from  the  southern  district,    including  Peter  Sharpe, 


262  BUCKTAIL  Ai^D  CLINTONIAN     [Chap.  xxm. 

afterward  speaker  of  the  Assembly.  Yet  the  fact  that  he  ac- 
complished it,  and  with  such  secrecy  that  Clinton's  friends 
did  not  know  how  it  was  brought  about,  showed  the  quiet 
and  complete  control  exercised  by  Van  Buren  over  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Bucktail  party.  The  National  Advocate,  edited 
by  Mordecai  Manesseh  Noah,  a  conspicuous  figure  in  politics 
for  forty  years  and  one  of  the  most  unrelenting  partisans 
of  his  day,  had  supported  Tammany  in  its  long  and  bitter  an- 
tagonism to  the  canal  with  a  malevolence  rarely  equalled  in 
that  or  any  other  day.  He  measured  pens  with  Israel  W. 
Clarke  of  the  Albany  Register,  who  had  so  ably  answered 
every  point  that  Noah  charged  their  authorship  to  Clinton 
himself.  But  after  Van  Buren  had  spoken,  the  Advocate, 
suddenly,  as  if  by  magic,  changed  its  course,  and,  with  the 
rest  of  the  Bucktail  contingent,  rallied  to  the  support  of 
Clinton's  pet  scheme  with  arguments  as  sound  and  full  of 
clear  good  sense  as  the  Governor  himself  could  wish.  The 
people,  however,  had  good  reason  to  know  that  statesmen 
were  not  all  and  always  exactly  as  they  professed  to  be ;  and 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  Bucktail  change  of  heart 
amounted  to  little  more  than  public  notice  that  the  canal 
policy  was  a  complete  success,  and  that  Tammany  and  its 
friends  had  discovered  that  further  opposition  was  useless. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
RE-ELECTION  OF  RUFUS  KING 

1819-1820 

Although  Clinton's  canal  policy  now  dominated  Buck- 
tails  as  well  as  Clintonians,  eliminating  all  differences  as 
to  public  measures,  the  bitterness  between  these  factions 
increased  until  the  effort  to  elect  a  United  States  senator 
to  succeed  Rufus  King  resulted  in  a  complete  separation. 
The  Clintonians  had  settled  upon  John  C.  Spencer,  while  the 
Bucktails  thought  Samuel  Young,  a  decided  friend  of  Clin- 
ton's canal  policy,  the  most  likely  man  to  attract  support. 
Both  were  representative  men,  and  either  would  have  done 
honour  to  the  State. 

John  C.  Spencer  needed  no  introduction  or  advertisement 
as  the  son  of  Ambrose  Spencer.  He  was  a  man  of  large  prom- 
ise. Everything  he  did  he  did  well,  and  he  had  already  done 
much.  Though  scarcely  thirty-four  years  of  age,  he  had  es- 
tablished himself  as  a  leading  lawyer  of  the  Commonwealth, 
whose  strong,  vigorous  English  in  support  of  the  war  had 
found  its  way  into  Parliament  as  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment to  Lord  Liverpool's  unwise  policy,  winning  him  an  en- 
viable reputation  as  a  writer.  Skilful  in  expression,  adroit 
in  attack,  calm  and  resourceful  in  argument,  with  the  sar- 
casm of  the  younger  Pitt,  he  had  presented  American  rights 
and  British  outrages  in  a  clearer  light  than  others,  arousing 
his  countrymen  very  much  as  the  letters  of  Junius  had  quick- 
ened English  political  life  forty  years  before.  He  made  it 
plain  that  England's  insistence  upon  the  right  to  stop  and 
search  an  American  vessel,  and  England's  persistent  refusal 
to  recognise  a  naturalised  American  citizen  on  board  an 

263 


264  KE-ELECTION  OF  RUFUS  KING     [Chap.  xxiv. 

American  vessel,  were  the  real  causes  of  quarrel.  ^'There  is 
not  an  individual,"  said  a  leading  British  journal,  "who  has 
attended  at  all  to  the  dispute  with  the  United  States,  who 
does  not  see  that  it  has  been  embittered  from  the  first,  and 
wantonly  urged  on  by  those  who,  for  the  sake  of  their  own 
aggrandisement,  are  willing  to  plunge  their  country  into  all 
the  evils  portrayed  by  the  American  writer." 

A  single  term  in  Congress  had  placed  Spencer  in  the  ranks 
of  the  leaders.  He  was  trenchant  in  speech,  forceful  on  paper, 
and  helpful  in  committee.  Intellectually,  he  took  the  place  of 
the  distinguished  South  Carolinian,  just  then  leaving  Con- 
gress to  become  Monroe's  secretary  of  war,  whose  thin  face 
and  firm  mouth  resembled  the  New  Yorker's.  Spencer,  like 
Calhoun,  delighted  in  establishing  by  the  subtlest  train  of 
philosophical  reasoning  the  delicate  lines  that  exposed 
sophistry  and  error,  and  made  clear  the  disputed  point  in  law 
or  in  legislation.  The  rhetorical  drapery  that  gave  Samuel 
Young  such  signal  success  found  no  place  in  Spencer's  ar- 
guments or  in  his  pamphlets;  but  to  a  logic  that  deeply 
penetrated  his  subject  he  added  an  ethical  interest  which 
captivated  the  mind,  as  his  reasoning  illuminated  and  made 
plain.  He  was  a  born  fighter.  Like  his  father,  he  asked  no 
quarter  and  he  gave  none.  His  eye  had  the  expression  one 
sees  in  hawks  and  game-cocks.  At  twenty-eight,  as  district 
attorney  of  the  five  western  counties  of  the  State,  he  had  be- 
come a  terror  to  evil-doers,  and  it  is  said  of  him,  at  his  old 
home  in  Canandaigua,  that  men,  conscious  of  their  inno- 
cence, preferred  appealing  to  the  mercy  of  the  court  than 
endure  prosecution  at  his  hands.  Possibly  he  possessed  the 
small  affections  which  Disraeli  thought  necessary  to  be 
coupled  with  large  brains  to  insure  success  in  public  life, 
yet  his  nature,  in  every  domestic  and  social  relation,  was 
the  gentlest  and  simplest.  DeWitt  Clinton  did  not  always 
approve  Spencer's  political  course.  He  thought  him  "an  in- 
cubus on  the  party,"  "the  political  millstone  of  the  west,'* 
and  he  attributed  the  occasional  loss  of  Ontario  and  neigh- 
bouring counties  "to  his  deleterious  management."    The  aus- 


1819]  SAMUEL   YOUNG  265 

terity  and  haughtiness  of  his  manner  naturally  lessened 
his  popularity,  just  as  his  caustic  pen  and  satirical  tongue 
made  him  bitter  enemies ;  but  his  strong  will  and  imperious 
manner  were  no  more  offensive  than  Clinton's.  Like  Clinton, 
too,  Spencer  was  ill  at  ease  in  a  harness ;  he  resented  being 
lined  up  by  a  party  boss.  But,  at  the  time  he  was  talked  of 
for  United  States  senator,  the  intelligent  action  and  tireless 
industry  upon  which  his  fame  rests,  had  so  impressed  men, 
that  they  overlooked  unpopular  traits  in  their  admiration 
for  his  great  ability.  People  did  not  then  know  that  he  was  to 
sit  in  the  Cabinet  of  a  President,  and  be  nominated  to  a 
place  upon  the  Supreme  bench  of  the  United  States ;  but  they 
knew  he  was  destined  to  become  famous,  because  he  was  al- 
ready recognised  as  a  professional  and  political  leader. 

The  genius  of  Samuel  Young  had  also  left  its  track  be- 
hind. He  was  not  a  great  lawyer,  but  his  contemporaries 
thought  him  a  great  man.  He  combined  brilliant  speaking 
with  brilliant  writing.  The  fragments  of  his  speeches  that 
have  been  preserved  scarcely  hint  at  the  extraordinary  power 
accorded  them  in  the  judgment  of  his  neighbours.  It  is  likely 
that  the  magic  of  presence,  voice,  and  action,  exaggerated 
their  merits,  since  he  possessed  the  gifts  of  a  trained  orator, 
rivalling  the  forceful  declamation  of  Erastus  Root,  the  mel- 
low tones  and  rich  vocabulary  of  William  W,  Van  Ness,  and 
the  smoothness  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  But,  if  his  speeches 
equalled  his  pamphlets,  the  judgment  of  his  contemporaries 
must  be  accepted  without  limitation.  Chancellor  Kent  ob- 
jected to  giving  joint  stock  companies  the  right  to  engage  in 
privateering,  a  drastic  measure  passed  by  the  Legislature  of 
1814  in  the  interest  of  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war;  and  in  his  usual  felicitous  style,  and  with  much  learn- 
ing, the  stubborn  Federalist  pronounced  the  statute  inconsis- 
tent with  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  contrary  to  the  genius  of 
the  Federal  Constitution.  Young  replied  to  the  great  Chan- 
cellor in  a  series  of  essays,  brilliant  and  readable  even  in  a 
new  century.  He  showed  that,  although  America  had  been 
handicapped  by  Federalist  opposition,  by  a   disorganised 


266  EE-ELECTION  OF  RUFUS  KING      [Chap.  xxiv. 

army,  and  by  a  navy  so  small  that  it  might  almost  as  well 
have  not  existed,  yet  American  privateers — outnumbering  the 
British  fleet,  scudding  before  the  wind,  defying  capture,  run- 
ning blockades,  destroying  commerce,  and  bearing  the  stars 
and  stripes  to  the  ends  of  the  earth — had  dealt  England  the 
most  staggering  blow  ever  inflicted  upon  her  supremacy  of 
the  sea.  This  was  plain  talk  and  plain  truth;  and  it  made 
the  speaker  of  the  Assembly  known  throughout  the  State  as 
''the  sword,  the  shield,  and  the  ornament  of  his  party." 
Young  was  as  dauntless  as  Spencer,  and,  if  anything,  a 
more  distinguished  looking  man.  He  was  without  austerity 
and  easy  of  approach;  and,  although  inclined  to  reticence, 
he  seemed  fond  of  indulging  in  jocular  remarks  and  an  occa- 
sional story;  but  he  was  a  man  of  bad  temper.  He  fretted 
under  opposition  as  much  as  Clinton,  and  he  easily  became 
vindictive  toward  opponents.  This  kept  him  unpopular  even 
among  men  of  his  own  faction.  Clinton  thought  him  "much 
of  an  imbecile,"  and  suggested  in  a  letter  to  Post  that  "sus- 
picions are  entertained  of  his  integrity."^  Yet  Young  had 
hosts  of  friends  eager  to  fight  his  political  battles. 

The  Bucktails  had  no  serious  expectation  either  of  nomi- 
nating or  electing  Samuel  Young  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate. They  knew  the  Clintonians  had  a  majority,  and  their 
purpose,  in  attending  the  caucus,  was  simply  to  prevent  a 
nomination.  No  sooner  had  the  meeting  assembled,  there- 
fore, than  several  Bucktails  attacked  the  Governor,  re- 
proaching him  for  the  conduct  of  his  followers  and  severely 
criticising  his  political  methods  and  character.  To  this  Ger- 
man retorted  with  great  bitterness.  German  made  no  pre- 
tensions to  the  gift  of  oratory ;  he  had  neither  grace  of  man- 
ner nor  alluring  forms  of  expression.  On  the  contrary,  there 
was  a  certain  quality  of  antagonism  in  his  manner,  as  if  he 
took  grim  satisfaction  in  letting  fly  his  words,  seemingly  al- 
most coldly  indifferent  to  their  effect;  and  on  this  occasion 
his  sledge-hammer  blows  gave  Peter  R.  Livingston,  evidently 

^  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  417. 


1819]  KING'S   DISLIKE   OF   CLINTON  267 

acting  by  prearrangement,  abundant  chance  for  forcing  a 
quarreh  In  the  confusion  that  followed,  the  caucus  hastily 
adjourned  amid  mutual  recriminations.  When  too  late  to 
mend  matters  the  Clintonians  discovered  the  trick.  They 
had  the  majority  and  could  easily  have  named  Spencer  as 
the  candidate  of  the  party,  but  in  the  excitement  of  German's 
speech  and  Livingston's  attack  they  lost  their  heads.  Thus 
ended  forever  all  caucus  relationship  between  these  warring 
factions,  and  henceforth  they  were  known  as  two  distinct 
parties. 

At  the  joint  session  of  the  Legislature,  on  February  2, 
1819,  the  Clintonians  gave  Spencer  sixty-four  votes,  while 
Young  received  fifty-seven,  and  Rufus  King  thirty-four.  ''A 
motion  then  prevailed  to  adjourn,"  wrote  John  A.  King  to 
his  father,  "so  that  this  Legislature  will  make  no  choice." 
Young  King,  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  was  looking  after 
his  father's  re-election  to  the  Senate.  He  deeply  resented 
Clinton's  control  of  the  Federalists,  because  it  made  his 
father  a  leader  only  in  name;  and  to  show  his  dislike  of  Fed- 
eralist methods  he  associated  and  voted  with  the  Bucktails, 
Nor  did  the  father  dislike  Clinton  less  than  the  son.  Rufus 
King  had  felt,  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  ''the  baleful  in- 
fluence of  the  Clintons,"  ever  since  his  advent  into  New  York 
politics.  They  had  opposed  the  Federal  Constitution  which 
he,  as  a  delegate  from  Massachusetts,  helped  to  frame;  they 
assisted  Jefferson  in  overwhelming  Hamilton;  and  they 
benefited  by  the  election  trick  which  defeated  John  Jay.  For 
more  than  two  decades,  therefore,  Rufus  King  had  watched 
their  control  by  methods,  which  a  man  cast  in  a  mould  that 
would  make  no  concessions  to  his  virtue,  could  not  approve. 
Under  his  observation,  DeWitt  Clinton  had  grown  from 
young  manhood,  ambitious  and  domineering,  accustomed  to 
destroy  the  friend  who  got  in  his  way  with  as  much  ease, 
apparently,  as  he  smote  an  enemy.  Hence  King  regarded  him 
much  as  Hamilton  did  Aaron  Burr;  and  against  his  candi- 
dacy for  President  in  1812,  he  used  the  argument  that  the 
great    Federalist    had  hurled  against    the  intriguing   New 


268  KE-ELECTION  OF  KUFUS  KING      [Chap.  xxiv. 

Yorker  in  1801.  He  rejoiced  that  Clinton  lost  the  mayoralty 
in  1815;  that  he  was  defeated  for  elector  in  1816;  and  he 
deeply  regretted  his  election  as  governor  in  1817. 

On  his  part,  Clinton  had  little  use  for  Rufus  King ;  but  his 
need  of  Federalist  votes  made  him  excessively  cautious 
about  appearing  to  oppose  the  distinguished  Senator;  al- 
though a  deep-laid  scheme,  understood  if  not  engineered  by 
Clinton,  existed  to  defeat  him.  John  King  assured  his  father 
that  Clinton,  inviting  Joseph  Yates  to  breakfast,  urged  him 
to  become  a  candidate ;  and  that  William  W.  Van  Ness  had 
asked  Chancellor  Kent  to  enter  the  race.  "I  entertain  not 
the  slightest  doubt,"  he  continued,  referring  to  Van  Ness, 
^'of  being  able  to  produce  such  testimony  of  his  hypocrisy 
and  infidelity  as  will  require  more  art  than  ever  he  is  master 
of  to  explain  or  escape  from."^  • 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  reassembling  of  the  Legis- 
lature, in  January,  1820,  these  machinations  of  Clinton 
caused  his  opponents  many  an  uneasy  hour.  The  Bucktails, 
who  could  not  elect  a  senator  of  their  own,  would  not  take 
a  Clintonian,  and  an  alliance  between  Clinton  and  the  Fed- 
■«ralists,  led  by  Van  Ness,  Oakley,  and  Jacob  R.  Van  Rensse- 
laer, threatened  to  settle  the  question  against  them.  Van 
Buren  favoured  King,  although  the  Administration  at  Wash- 
ington thought  his  election  impolitic,  because  of  its  effect 
upon  the  party  in  the  State;  but  Van  Buren  showed  great 
firmness.  His  party  was  violently  opposed  to  King.  Van 
Buren,  too,  was  growing  tired  of  the  strain  of  maintaining 
the  leadership  of  one  faction  without  disrupting  the  other. 
J3ut  so  sure  was  he  of  the  wisdom  of  King's  support  that 
he  insisted  upon  it,  even  though  it  sacrificed  his  leadership. 
^'We  are  committed  to  his  support,"  he  wrote.  "It  is  both 
wise  and  honest.  Mr.  King's  views  toward  us  are  honourable 
and  correct.    I  will  put  my  head  on  its  propriety."^ 

Van  Buren  wanted  to  share  in  the  division  of  the  Feder- 

*  Charles  R.  King-,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6, 
p.  251. 

"  Edward  M.  Shepard,  Life  of  Van  Buren,  p.  71. 


1820]  VAN   BUEEN'S   FIRMNESS  269 

alists;  and  to  refuse  them  a  United  States  senator,  when 
Clinton  had  recently  given  them  an  attorney-general,  an  in- 
fluential, and,  at  that  time,  a  most  lucrative  office,  struck 
him  as  poor  policy — especially  since  John  A,  King  and  other 
estimable  gentlemen  had  evidenced  a  disposition  to  join 
them.  Two  weeks  before  the  Legislature  assembled,  there- 
fore, an  unsigned  letter,  skilfully  drawn,  found  its  way  into 
the  hands  of  every  Bucktail,  summing  up  the  reasons  why 
they  could  properly  support  Rufus  King.  After  recalling  his 
Revolutionary  services,  this  anonymous  writer  declared  that 
support  of  King  could  not  subject  Bucktails  to  the  suspicion 
of  a  political  bargain,  since  the  Senator  had  neither  acted 
with  the  Federalists  who  had  shown  malignity  against  the 
Administration,  nor  with  that  numerous  and  respectable 
portion  who  ignorantly  thought  the  war  impolitic;  but 
rather  with  those  who  aided  in  forcing  England  to  respect 
the  rights  of  American  citizens.  It  was  a  cunning  letter. 
There  was  rough  and  rasping  sarcasm  for  the  Clintonians; 
an  ugly  disregard  for  the  radical  Federalist;  a  kind  word 
for  the  mere  party  follower,  and  winning  speech  for  the 
gifted  sons  who  had  risen  superior  to  inherited  prejudices. 
The  concluding  declaration  to  the  Bucktails  was  that  King 
merited  support  because  he  and  his  friends  opposed  Gover- 
nor Clinton's  re-election,  the  assertion  being  justified  by  ref- 
erence to  John  King's  vote  against  German  and  the  Clinton 
Council. 

Of  the  authorship  of  this  remarkable  paper,  there  could 
be  no  doubt.  William  L.  Marcy  had  aided  in  its  prepara- 
tion ;  but  the  hand  of  Van  Buren  had  shaped  its  character 
and  inspired  its  winning  qualities.  It  had  the  instant  effect 
that  Van  Buren  plainly  invoked  for  it — the  unanimous  elec- 
tion of  Rufus  King.  Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  nothing  in  Van 
Buren's  official  life  showed  greater  political  courage  or  dis- 
cernment. It  is  not  so  famous  as  his  Sherrod  Williams  let- 
ter of  1836,  or  the  celebrated  Texas  letter  with  which  he 
faced  the  crisis  of  1814,  but  it  ranks  with  the  public  utter- 
ances of  those  years  when  he  took  the  risk  of  meeting  living 


270  EE-ELECTION  OF  RUFUS  KING      [Chap.  xxiv. 

issues  that  divided  men  on  small  margins.  There  was  a 
strength  and  character  about  it  that  seemed  to  leave  men 
powerless  to  answer.  Clintonians  objected  to  King,  many 
Bucktails  opposed  him,  Van  Ness  declared  that  he  could 
easily  be  defeated,  Thomas  J.  Oakley  recognised  him  as  the 
candidate  of  a  man  who  spoke  of  Clinton  and  his  Federalist 
allies  as  profligates  and  political  blacklegs.  Yet  they  all 
voted  for  Rufus  King.  Van  Buren  made  up  their  minds  for 
them ;  and,  though  protesting  against  the  duplicity  of  Buck- 
tail,  the  cowardliness  of  Federalist,  and  the  timidity  of  Clin- 
tonian,  each  party  indorsed  him,  while  proclaiming  him  ncft 
its  choice. 

But  Rufus  King  was  not  an  ordinary  candidate.  His 
great  experience  and  exalted  character,  coupled  with  his 
discriminating  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  the  country, 
yielded  strength  that  no  other  man  in  the  State  could  com- 
mand. He  was  now  about  sixty  years  of  age,  and,  of  living 
statesmen,  he  had  no  superior.  His  life  had  been  a  pure  one, 
and  his  public  acts  and  purposes,  measured  by  the  virtues  of 
patriotism,  honesty  and  integrity,  entitled  him  to  the  re- 
spect and  lasting  gratitude  of  his  fellow  citizens.  The  taste 
for  letters  which  characterised  his  Harvard  College  days,  fol- 
lowed him  into  public  affiairs,  and  if  his  style  lacked  the 
simplicity  of  Madison's  and  the  prophetic  grasp  and  instinct- 
ive knowledge  of  Hamilton,  he  shared  their  clearness  of  state- 
ment and  breadth  of  view.  He  displayed  similar  capacity  in 
administration  and  in  keeping  abreast  of  the  times.  Al- 
though a  lifelong  member  of  the  Federal  party,  whose  lead- 
ership in  New  York  he  inherited  upon  the  death  of  its  great 
founder,  he  supported  the  War  of  1812  with  zeal,  giving  no 
countenance  to  the  Hartford  Convention  if  he  did  not  openly 
oppose  it,  and  promising  nothing  in  the  way  of  aid  that  he 
did  not  amply  and  promptly  fulfil.  At  the  supreme  moment 
of  the  crisis,  in  1814,  when  the  general  government  needed 
money  and  the  banks  would  loan  only  upon  the  indorsement 
of  the  Governor,  he  pledged  his  honour  to  support  Tompkins 
in  whatever  he  did. 


1820]  A  GEE  AT   SENATOR  271 

To  the  society  of  contemporaries,  regardless  of  party,  King 
was  always  welcome.  He  disliked  a  quarrel.  It  seemed  to 
be  his  effort  to  avoid  controversy;  and  when  compelled  to 
lead,  or  to  participate  conspicuously  in  heated  debate,  he 
carefully  abstained  from  giving  offence.  Benton  bears  testi- 
mony to  his  habitual  observance  of  the  courtesies  of  life.  In- 
deed, his  urbanity  made  a  deep  impression  upon  all  his  col- 
leagues. Yet  King  was  not  a  popular  man.  The  people 
thought  him  an  aristocrat ;  and,  although  without  arrogance, 
his  appearance  and  manner  gave  character  to  their  opinion. 
His  countenance  inclined  to  austerity,  forbidding  easy  ap- 
proach ;  his  indisposition  to  talk  lent  an  air  of  reserve,  with 
the  suggestion  of  coldness,  which  was  unrelieved  by  the  touch 
of  amiability  that  commended  John  Jay  to  the  affectionate 
regard  of  men.  It  was  his  nature  to  be  serious  and  thought- 
ful. Among  friends  he  talked  freely,  often  facetiously,  be- 
coming, at  times,  peculiarly  instructive  and  fascinating,  as 
his  remarkable  memory  gave  up  with  accuracy  and  facility 
the  product  of  extensive  travel,  varied  experiences,  close  ob- 
servation, and  much  reading.  His  statements,  especially 
those  relating  to  historical  and  political  details,  were  rarely 
questioned.  We  read  that  he  was  of  somewhat  portly  habit, 
above  the  middle  size,  strongly  made,  with  the  warm  com- 
plexion of  good  health,  large,  attractive  eyes,  and  a  firm,  full 
mouth;  that,  although  men  no  longer  chose  to  be  divided 
sharply  by  marked  distinction  of  attire,  he  always  appeared 
in  the  United  States  Senate  in  full  dress,  with  short  clothes, 
silk  stockings  and  shoes — having  something  of  pride  and 
hauteur  in  his  manner  that  was  slightly  offensive  to  plain 
country  gentlemen,  as  well  as  inconsistent  with  the  republi- 
can idea  of  equality.  Wealthy,  he  lived  at  Jamaica,  in  a 
stately  mansion,  surrounded  by  noble  horse  chestnut  trees, 
an  estate  known  as  King  Park,  and  kept  at  public  expense  as 
a  typical  Long  Island  colonial  homestead. 

It  is  possible  that  the  extension  of  slavery  into  Missouri 
influenced  King's  return  to  the  United  States  Senate;  for 
the  election  occurred  in  the  midst  of  that  heated  contest, 


^72  RE-ELECTION  OF  RUFUS  KING      [Chap.  xxit. 

a  contest  in  which  he  had  already  taken  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  Fifteenth  Congress,  and  in  which  he  was  des- 
tined to  earn,  in  still  greater  degree,  the  commendation  of 
friends,  outside  and  inside  the  Senate,  as  the  champion  of 
freedom.  But  whatever  the  cause  of  his  election,  it  is  certain 
that  it  was  free  from  suspicion,  other  than  that  he  preferred 
Van  Buren  to  Clinton — a  choice  which  necessarily  created 
the  impression  that  King's  prejudice  against  Clinton  re- 
sulted more  from  jealousy  than  from  aversion  to  his  charac- 
ter. No  doubt  Clinton's  ability  to  dominate  Federalist  sup- 
port, in  spite  of  King's  opposition,  wounded  the  latter's 
pride  and  created  a  dislike  which  gradually  deepened  into 
a  feeling  of  resentment.  It  had  practically  left  him  without 
a  party ;  and  he  turned  to  Van  Buren  very  much  as  Charles 
James  Fox  turned  to  Lord  North  in  1782.  He  cheerfully  ac- 
cepted the  most  confidential  relations  with  the  Kinderhook 
statesman,  and  when,  a  year  or  two  later.  Van  Buren  joined 
him  in  the  United  States  Senate,  Benton  observed  the  defer- 
ential regard  paid  by  Van  Buren  to  his  venerable  colleague, 
and  the  marked  kindness  and  respect  returned  by  King.  Yet 
King  did  not  openly  ally  himself  with  the  Bucktails.  They 
could  rely  with  certainty  upon  his  support  to  antagonise 
Clinton,  but  he  declined  to  join  a  party  whose  character  and 
principles  did  not  promise  such  companionship  as  he  had 
been  accustomed  to. 


CHAPTER   XXV 
TOMPKINS'    LAST    CONTEST 

1820 

The  coming  of  1820  was  welcomed  by  the  Van  Buren 
forces.  It  was  the  jenr  for  the  selection  of  another  governor, 
and  the  Bucktails,  very  weary  of  Clinton,  were  anxious  for 
a  change.  For  all  practical  purposes  Bucktails  and  Clinton- 
iaus  had  now  become  two  opposing  parties.  Van  Buren's  re- 
moval as  attorney-general,  by  the  Council  of  1819,  ending 
all  semblance  of  friendship  and  political  affiliation.  This 
Council  was  known  as  "Clinton's  Council;"  and,  profiting  by 
the  lesson  learned  in  1817,  Clinton  had  made  a  clean  sweep 
of  the  men  he  believed  to  have  acted  against  him.  He  gave 
Van  Buren's  place  to  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  and  Peter  A.  Jay, 
eldest  son  of  John  Jay,  who  had  rendered  valuable  assist- 
ance in  promoting  the  construction  of  the  canal,  he  made 
recorder  of  New  York  City,  an  office  which  Richard  Riker 
had  held  since  1815.  These  appointments  naturally  sub- 
jected the  Governor  to  the  criticism  of  removing  Republi- 
cans to  make  places  for  Federalists.  But  the  new  officers 
were  Clinton's  friends,  while  Riker,  at  least,  had  been  an 
open  enemy  since  Jonas  Piatt's  appointment  to  the  Supreme 
bench  in  1814.  Jay's  appointment  was  also  a  thrust  at  the 
so-called  "high-minded"  Federalists,  composed  of  the  sons  of 
Alexander  Hamilton,  Rufus  King,  and  other  well  known  men 
of  the  party. 

Clinton's  intimates  had  long  known  his  desire  to  get  rid 
of  Van  Buren.  In  his  letters  to  Henry  Post,  the  Kinderhook 
statesman  is  termed  "an  arch  scoundrel,"  "the  prince  of  vil- 
lains," and  "a  confirmed  knave  ;"^  yet  Clinton  put  off  the 

^DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  412-7,  563-71. 

273 


274  TOMPKINS'  LAST  CONTEST         [Chap.  xxv. 

moment  of  his  removal  from  week  to  week,  very  much  as 
Tompkins  hesitated  to  remove  Clinton  from  the  mayoralty-; 
that  is,  not  so  much  to  save  the  feelings  of  Van  Buren  as  to 
avert  the  hostility  of  James  Tallmadge  and  John  C.  Spencer^ 
both  of  whom  sought  the  office.  Tallmadge  had  recently  re- 
turned from  Congress  full  of  honours  because  of  his  brilliant 
part  in  the  great  debate  on  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and 
he  now  confidently  expected  the  appointment.  The  moment, 
therefore,  the  Council,  at  its  meeting  in  July,  1819,  named 
Oakley,  Tallmadge  ranged  himself  squarely  among  Clinton's 
enemies.  Van  Buren  had  expected  dismissal,  and  he  seems 
to  have  taken  it  with  the  outward  serenity  and  dignity  that 
characterised  the  departure  of  Clinton  from  the  mayoralty 
in  1815 ;  but  in  confidential  communications  to  Rufus  King, 
he  spoke  of  Clinton  and  his  friends  as  "very  profligate  men," 
''politician  blacklegs,"  and  "a  set  of  desperadoes.'-- 

In  the  Bucktail  mind,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  seemed  the 
only  man  sufficiently  popular  to  oppose  DeWitt  Clinton  in 
the  gubernatorial  contest.  He  was  remembered  as  the  great 
War  Governor;  and  the  up-state  leaders,  representing  the 
old  war  party,  thought  he  could  rally  and  unite  the  opposing 
factions  better  than  any  one  else.  In  some  respects  Tomp- 
kins' position  in  1820  was  not  unlike  that  of  John  A. 
Andrew  in  Massachusetts  in  1870,  the  great  war  gov- 
ernor of  the  Civil  War.  His  well-doing  in  the  criti- 
cal days  of  the  contest  had  passed  into  history,  making  his 
accomplishment  a  matter  of  pride  to  the  State,  and  giving 
him  an  assured  standing.  Everybody  knew  that  he  had 
raised  troops  after  enlistments  had  practically  stopped  else- 
where ;  that  he  had  bought  army  supplies,  equipped  regiments, 
constructed  fortifications,  manned  forts,  fitted  out  priva- 
teers, paid  bills  from  funds  raised  on  his  individual  indorse- 
ment, and  worked  with  energy  while  New  England  sulked. 
When  the  grotesque  treaty  of  Ghent  closed  the  war,  the  Gov- 
ernor's star  shone  brightly  in  the  zenith.    At  this  time,  there- 

*  Martin  Van  Buren  to  Kufus  King-,  January  19,  1820;  Charles  K. 
King,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6,  p.  252. 


1820]  SHOET  m  HIS  ACCOUNTS  2V5 

fore,  Daniel  D,  Tompkins  was  undoubtedly  the  most  popular 
man  personally  that  ever  participated  in  New  York  polities. 
Hammond,  the  historian,  relates  that  a  father,  desiring  the 
jiardon  of  his  son,  left  the  capital  better  pleased  with  Gover- 
nor Tompkins,  who  refused  it,  than  with  Governor  Clinton, 
who  granted  it.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  just  wherein  lay  the 
charm  of  his  wonderful  personality.  His  voice  was  rich  and 
mellow;  his  face,  prepossessing  in  repose,  expressed  sym- 
pathy and  friendship ;  while  his  manner,  gentle  and  gracious 
without  unnaturalness,  appealed  to  his  auditor  as  if  he  of  all 
men,  was  the  one  whom  the  Governor  wished  to  honour.  His 
success,  too,  had  been  marvellous.  He  had  carried  the  State 
by  the  largest  majority  ever  given  to  a  governor  up  to  that 
time;  larger  than  Jay's  triumphant  majority  in  1798;  larger 
than  George  Clinton's  in  1801  after  the  election  of  Jefferson 
and  the  organisation  of  the  Republican  party;  larger  even 
than  the  surprising  vote  given  Morgan  Lewis  in  1804,  when 
Alexander  Hamilton  and  the  Clintons  combined  against 
Aaron  Burr.  Tompkins'  nomination  for  governor,  there- 
fore, was  made  on  January  16,  1820,  without  the  slightest 
opposition. 

It  was  known,  at  this  time,  that  Tompkins'  accounts  as 
governor  showed  a  shortage.  He  had  failed  to  take  vouchers 
during  the  war,  and  it  was  thought  not  unlikely  that  he  had 
paid  for  army  supplies  out  of  his  own  money,  and  for  family 
supplies  out  of  the  State's  money;  but  no  one  believed  him 
guilty  of  intentional  misconduct.  Nevertheless,  his  accounts, 
after  the  comptroller  had  audited  them,  after  a  commission 
of  expert  accountants  had  sought  for  missing  vouchers,  and 
after  friends  had  made  explanations,  were  still  |120,000 
short.  By  an  act,  approved  April  13,  1819,  the  Legislature 
authorised  the  comptroller  to  balance  this  shortage  by  al- 
lowing Tompkins  a  premium  of  twelve  per  cent,  on  $1,000,- 
000,  and  people  thought  nothing  more  about  it  until  Tomp- 
liins  presented  an  account,  demanding  a  premium  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent.,  which  brought  the  State  in  debt  to  him  in  the 
sum  of  1130,000. 


2V6  TOMPKINS'  LAST  CONTEST         [Chap.  xxv. 

The  comptroller,  overwhelmed  by  the  extravagance  of  the 
claim,  construed  the  law  to  limit  the  premium  on  moneys- 
borrowed  solely  on  Tompkins'  personal  responsibility,  and 
out  of  this  a  correspondence  was  conducted  with  much  asper- 
ity. Archibald  Mclntyre,  the  comptroller  since  180G,  pos- 
sessed the  absolute  confidence  of  the  people;  and  when  his 
letters  became  public  a  suspicion  that  the  Vice  President 
might  be  wrong  was  quickly  encouraged  by  the  friends  of 
Clinton.  This  suspicion  was  increased  as  soon  as  the  Legis- 
lature of  1820  got  to  work.  It  was  intent  on  mischief.  By  a 
fusion  of  Clintonians  and  Federalists  John  C.  Spencer  be- 
came speaker  of  the  Assembly,  and  to  cripple  Tompkins,  who- 
had  now  been  nominated  for  governor,  Jedediah  Miller  of 
Schoharie  offered  a  resolution  approving  the  conduct  of  the 
Comptroller  in  settling  the  accounts  of  the  former  Governor. 
This  precipitated  a  discussion  which  has  rarely  been  equalled 
in  Albany  for  passion  and  brilliancy.  A  coterie  of  the  most 
skilful  debaters  happened  to  be  members  of  this  Assembly; 
and  for  several  weeks  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  John  C.  Spencer, 
and  Elisha  Williams  sustained  the  Comptroller,  while  Eras- 
tus  Boot,  Peter  Sharpe,  and  others  pleaded  for  Tompkins. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  9th  of  March,  a  Senate  committee,  with 
A"an  Buren  as  chairman,  reported  that  the  Comptroller  ought 
to  have  allowed  Tompkins  a  premium  of  twelve  and  a  half 
per  cent,  on  |1, 000,000,  leaving  a  balance  due  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent of  |11,870..50.  It  was  a  strange  mix-up,  and  the  more 
committees  examined  it  the  worse  appeared  the  muddle. 
After  Van  Buren  had  reported,  the  question  arose,  should 
the  Comptroller  be  sustained,  or  should  the  report  of  Van 
Buren's  committee  be  accepted?  It  was  a  long  drop  from 
1130,000  claimed  by  Tompkins  to  |11,780.50  awarded  him  by 
Van  Buren,  yet  it  was  better  to  take  that  than  accept  a  set- 
tlement which  made  him  a  defaulter,  and  the  Senate  ap- 
proved the  Van  Buren  report.  But  Thomas  J.  Oakley,  chair- 
man of  the  Assembly  committee  to  which  it  was  referred,  did 
not  propose  to  let  the  candidate  for  governor  escape  so 
easily.    In  an  able  review  of  the  whole  question  he  sustained 


1820]  VAN  BUEEN'S  DIPLOMACY  21 T 

the  Comptroller,  maintaining  that  the  Vice  President  must 
seek  relief  under  the  law  like  other  parties,  and  instructing 
the  Comptroller  to  sue  for  any  balance  due  the  State,  unless 
Tompkins  reimbursed  it  by  the  following  August.  This 
ended  legislation  for  the  session. 

Van  Buren  seems  to  have  had  no  concern  about  Tompkins' 
canal  record.  Possibly  he  thought  the  disappearance  of  Buck- 
tail  opposition  took  that  issue  out  of  the  campaign ;  but  he 
was  greatly  worked  up  over  the  unsettled  accounts,  and  in 
his  usual  adroit  manner  set  influences  to  work  to  discourage 
Tompkins'  acceptance  of  the  nomination,  and  to  secure  the 
consent  of  Smith  Thompson,  then  secretary  of  the  navy,  to 
make  the  race  himself.  He  had  little  difficulty  in  accomplish- 
ing this  end,  for  Thompson  was  not  at  all  unwilling.  But  to- 
get  rid  of  Tompkins  was  another  question.  *The  Republican 
party  in  this  State  never  was  better  united,"  he  wrote  Smith 
Thompson,  on  January  19,  1820,  three  days  after  TTompkins' 
nomination ;  ''they  all  love,  honour  and  esteem  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent ;  but  such  is  their  extreme  anxiety  to  insure  the  prostra- 
tion of  the  Junto,  who  have  stolen  into  the  seats  of  power, 
that  they  all  desire  that  you  should  be  the  candidate.  They 
will  support  Tompkins  to  the  bat's  end  if  you  refuse,  or  he 
should  not  decline;  but  if  he  does,  and  you  consent  to  our 
wishes,  you  will  be  hailed  as  the  saviour  of  New  York."^  On 
the  same  day  Van  Buren  also  wrote  Rufus  King:  ''Some  of 
our  friends  think  it  is  dangerous  to  support  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent under  existing  circumstances.  ...  A  few  of  us 
have  written  him  freely  on  the  subject  and  to  meet  the 
event  of  his  having  left  the  city  of  Washington,  I  have  sent 
a  copy  of  our  letter  to  Secretary  Thompson,  of  which  cir- 
cumstance the  Secretary  is  not  informed.  There  are  many 
points  of  view  in  which  it  would  be  desirable  to  place  this 
subject  before  you,  but  I  am  fully  satisfied  you  will  appre- 
ciate without  further  explanation.  I  will,  therefore,  only  say, 
that  if  the  Vice  President  is  with  you,  and  upon  a  free  dis- 

'  Charles  K.  King,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6„ 
p.  254. 


278  TOMPKINS'  LAST  CONTEST         [Chap.  xxv. 

cussion  between  you,  the  Secretary  and  himself,  he  should 
resolve  to  decline,  and  you  can  induce  the  Secretary  to  con- 
sent to  our  using  his  name,  you  will  do  a  lasting  benefit  to 
the  Republican  interest  of  this  State."* 

To  this  most  adroit  and  cunning  letter  Rufus  King  re- 
plied on  the  last  day  of  the  month :  "The  Vice  President 
left  us  to-day  at  noon ;  on  his  way  he  stopped  at  the  Senate 
and  we  had  a  short  conference.  ...  1  observed  as  be- 
tween him  and  Mr.  Clinton  my  apprehension  was  that 
a  majority,  possibly  a  large  majority  of  Federalists  would 
vote  for  Mr.  Clinton;  adding  that  between  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  and  Mr.  Clinton  I  was  persuaded  that  a  major- 
ity of  the  Federalists  would  prefer  the  Secretary.  .  .  . 
Apologising  for  the  frankness  with  which  I  expressed 
my  opinion,  I  added  that  I  hoped  he  would  wait  until  he 
reached  New  York  before  he  decided;  perhaps  he  would 
think  it  best  to  delay  his  answer  until  he  arrived  in  Albany; 
one  thing  I  considered  absolutely  necessary — that  his  ac- 
counts should  be  definitely  closed  before  election.  He  an- 
swered that  he  was  going  immediately  to  Albany  with  four 
propositions  which  would  lead  to  a  final  settlement;  that 
he  might  think  it  best  to  delay  his  answer  to  the  nomination 
until  he  should  reach  Albany.  I  said  in  conclusion  that  my 
earnest  wish  was  the  exclusion  of  Mr.  Clinton,  and  my  pref- 
erence (knowing  the  personal  sacrifice  he  would  make  in 
consenting  to  his  own  nomination)  that  the  candidate  se- 
lected should  be  the  man  who,  in  the  opinion  of  those  most 
capable  to  decide,  will  be  the  most  likely  to  accomplish  the 
work."^ 

Rufus  King  certainly  did  his  work  well.  He  had  abun- 
dantly discouraged  him  as  to  the  Federalists  and  had  fully 
advised  him  as  to  the  importance  of  settling  his  accounts; 
but  all  to  no  purpose.  Two  days  later  Thompson  wrote  Van 
Buren  that  the  Vice  President  "will  stand."     The  Kinder- 

*  Charles  E.  King,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6, 
p.  252. 
"  Ibid.,  Vol.  6,   p.  263 


1820]  A  MAN  WITHOUT  A  PARTY  279 

hook  statesman,  however,  disinclined  to  give  it  up,  asked  the 
Secretary  in  a  note  on  the  same  day  for  authority  to  use  his 
name  *'if  the  Vice  President,  when  he  arrives  here,  should 
wish  to  decline."  On  the  7th  of  February,  John  A.  King 
wrote  his  father:  "Hopes  are  still  entertained  that  the 
Vice  President's  decision  may  yet  yield  to  the  wishes  of 
many  of  his  oldest  friends.  Those,  however,  who  know  him 
best  have  no  such  hopes.  Judge  Yates  has  said  that  he  never 
refused  an  offer  of  any  sort  in  his  life."*'  And  so  it  proved 
in  this  instance.  Tompkins  was  immovable.  Like  a  race 
horse  trained  to  running,  he  only  needed  to  be  let  into  the 
ring  and  given  a  free  rein.  When  the  bell  sounded  he  was 
off  on  his  fifth  race  for  governor. 

If  Tompkins  was  handicapped  with  a  shortage  and  a  canal 
record,  Clinton  was  harassed  for  want  of  a  party.  To  con- 
ceal the  meagreness  of  his  strength  in  a  legislative  caucus, 
Clinton  was  renominated  with  John  Taylor  at  a  meeting  of 
the  citizens  of  Albany.  He  had  a  following  and  a  large  one, 
but  it  was  without  cohesion  or  discipline.  Men  felt  at  lib- 
erty to  withdraw  without  explanation  and  without  notice. 
Within  eight  months  after  his  election  as  a  Clintonian  sen- 
ator, Benjamin  Mooers  of  Plattsburg  accepted  the  nomina- 
tion for  lieutenant-governor  on  the  ticket  with  Governor 
Tompkins,  apparently  without  loss  of  political  prestige,  or 
the  respect  of  neighbours.  The  administration  at  Washing- 
ton recognised  the  Bucktails  as  the  regular  Republican 
party,  and  showered  offices  among  them,  until  Clinton  later 
made  it  a  matter  of  public  complaint  and  official  investiga- 
tion. Other  disintegrating  influences  were  also  at  work. 
The  "high  minded"  Federalists,  in  a  published  document 
signed  by  forty  or  fifty  leading  men,  declared  the  Federal 
party  dissolved  and  annihilated,  and  pronounced  the  Clinton 
party  simply  a  personal  one.  To  belong  to  it  independence 
must  be  surrendered,  and  to  obtain  office  in  it,  one  must  laud 
its  head  and  bow  the  knee,  a  system  of  sycophancy,  they  said, 

°  Charles  E.  King,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6, 
p.  267. 


280  TOMPKINS'  LAST  CONTEST        [Chap.  xxv. 

disgusting  all  "high  minded"  men.  But  DeWitt  Clinton's 
strength  was  not  in  parties  nor  in  political  management.  He 
belonged  to  the  great  men  of  his  time,  having  no  superior 
in  New  York,  and,  in  some  respects,  no  equal  in  the  country. 
He  possessed  a  broader  horizon,  a  larger  intellect,  a  greater 
moral  courage,  than  most  of  his  contemporaries.  It  is  prob- 
ably true  that,  like  a  mountain,  he  appeared  best  at  a  dis- 
tance, but  having  confidence  in  his  ability  and  integrity, 
people  easily  overlooked  his  rough,  unpopular  manners.  The 
shrewd,  sagacious  Yankee  farmers  who  were  filling  up  the 
great  western  counties  of  Ontario  and  Genesee  believed  in 
him.  The  Bucktails  did  not  know,  until  the  eastern  and 
western  districts  responded  with  five  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  four  majority  for  Clinton,  as  against  four  thousand 
three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  for  Tompkins  in  the  middle 
and  southern  districts,  what  a  capital  cry  Clinton  had  in  the 
canal  issue;  what  a  i)owerful  appeal  to  selfish  interests  he 
could  put  into  voice;  and  what  a  loud  reply  selfish  interests 
would  make  to  the  appeal.  It  was  not,  in  fact,  a  race  be- 
tween parties  at  all ;  it  was  not  a  question  of  shortage  or 
settlement.  It  is  likely  the  shortage  affected  the  result  some- 
what ;  but  the  majority  of  over  fourteen  hundred  meant  ap- 
proval of  Clinton  and  his  canal  policy  rather  than  distrust 
of  Tompkins  and  his  unsettled  accounts.  The  question  in 
1820  was,  shall  the  canal  be  built?  and,  although  the  Buck- 
tails  had  ceased  their  hostility,  the  people  most  interested 
in  the  canal's  construction  wanted  Clinton  to  complete  what 
he  had  so  gloriously  and  successfully  begun. 

The  campaign  was  fought  out  with  bitterness  and  despera- 
tion until  the  polls  closed.  No  national  or  state  issue  di- 
vided the  parties.  In  fact,  there  were  no  issues.  It  was  sim- 
ply a  question  whether  Clinton  and  his  friends,  or  Tompkins 
and  the  Bucktails  should  control  the  state  government.  The 
arguments,  therefore,  were  purely  personal.  Clinton's 
friends  relied  upon  his  canal  policy,  his  honesty,  and  his  in- 
tegrity— the  Bucktails  insisted  that  Clinton  was  no  longer  a 
Republican;  that  the  canal  would  be  constructed  as  well 


I 


1820]  CLINTON   ELECTED  281 

without  him  as  with  him,  and  that  his  defeat  would  wipe  out 
factional  strife  and  give  New  York  greater  prominence  in 
the  councils  of  the  party.  'Tor  the  last  ten  days,"  wrote 
Van  Buren  to  Kufus  King,  on  April  13,  *'I  have  scarcely  had 
time  to  take  my  regular  meals  and  am  at  this  moment 
pressed  by  at  least  half  a  dozen  unfinished  concerns  growing 
out  of  this  intolerable  political  struggle  in  which  we  are  in- 
volved."^ Nevertheless,  he  had  no  doubt  of  Tompkins'  elec- 
tion. '*I  entertain  the  strongest  convictions  that  we  shall 
succeed,"^  he  wrote  later  in  the  month.  On  the  other  hand, 
Clinton  was  no  less  certain.  In  his  letters  to  Henry  Post 
he  is  always  confident;  but  at  no  time  more  so  than  now. 
*'The  canal  proceeds  wondrously  well,"  he  says.  *'The  Mart- 
ling  opposition  has  ruined  them  forever.  The  public  mind 
was  never  in  a  better  train  for  useful  operations.  John 
Townsend  has  just  come  from  the  west.  There  is  but  one 
sentiment."''  Yet,  when  the  battle  ended,  it  looked  like  a 
Clintonian  defeat  and  Bucktail  victory;  for  the  latter  had 
swept  the  Legislature,  adding  to  their  control  in  the  Senate 
and  capturing  the  Assembly  by  a  majority  of  eighteen  over 
all.  It  was  only  the  presence  of  Tompkins  among  the  slain 
that  transferred  the  real  glory  to  Clinton,  whose  majority 
was  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty-seven  in  a  total  vote  of 
ninety-three  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven.  This 
exceeded  any  former  aggregate  by  nearly  ten  thousand.^" 

Daniel  D.  Tompkins  took  his  defeat  much  to  heart.  He 
believed  his  unsettled  accounts  had  occasioned  whispered 
slanders  that  crushed  him.  After  his  angry  controversy 
with  Comptroller  Mclntyre,  in  the  preceding  year,  he  seri- 
ously considered  the  propriety  of  resigning  as  Vice  Pres- 
ident; for  he  sincerely  believed  his  figures  were  right  and 

'  Charles  R.  King-,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Rufus  King,  Vol.  6, 
p.  331. 

'  Ibid.,  Vol.  6,  p.  332. 

'  DeWitt  Clinton  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine,  Vol.  50, 
p.  413. 

"DeWitt  Clinton,  47,444;  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  45,9d0.— Civil  List, 
State  of  Nac  York  (1887),  p.  166. 


282  TOMPKINS'  LAST  CONTEST         [Chap.  xxv. 

that  the  Comptroller's  language  had  classed  him  in  the  pub- 
lic mind  with  what,  in  these  latter  days,  would  be  called 
^'grafters."  "Our  friend  on  Staten  Island  is  unfortunately 
sick  in  body  and  mind,"  Clinton  wrote  to  Post  in  September, 
1819.  "His  situation  upon  the  whole  is  deplorable  and  cal- 
culated to  excite  sympathy."^^  It  was,  indeed,  a  most  unfor- 
tunate affair,  for  the  State  discovered,  years  after  it  was  too 
late,  that  it  did  owe  the  War  Governor  ninety-two  thousand 
dollars. 

Tompkins'  public  life  continued  four  years  longer.  In  the 
autumn  of  1820,  the  Legislature  balanced  his  accounts  and 
the  country  re-elected  him  Vice  President.  The  next  year 
his  party  made  him  a  delegate  to  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion, and  the  convention  made  him  its  president;  but  he 
never  recovered  from  the  chagrin  and  mortification  of  his 
defeat  for  the  governorship.  Soon  after  the  election,  melan- 
choly accounts  appeared  of  the  havoc  wrought  upon  a  frame 
once  so  full  of  animal  spirits.  He  began  to  drink  too  freely 
even  for  those  days  of  deep  drink.  His  eye  lost  its  lustre; 
deep  lines  furrowed  the  round,  sunny  face;  the  unruffled 
temper  became  irritable ;  and,  within  three  months  after  the 
■close  of  his  second  term  as  Vice  President,  before  he  had 
entered  his  fifty-second  year,  he  was  dead. 

"  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper'i  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  413. 


I 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  ALBANY  REGENCY 

1820-1822 

When  the  Legislature  assembled  to  appoint  presidential 
electors  in  November,  1820,  Bucktail  fear  of  Clinton  was  at 
an  end  for  the  present.  Before,  his  name  had  been  one  to 
conjure  with ;  thenceforth  it  was  to  have  no  terrors.  He  had, 
indeed,  been  re-elected  governor,  but  the  small  majority, 
scarcely  exceeding  one  per  cent,  of  the  total  vote,  showed 
that  he  was  now  merely  an  independent,  and  a  very  indepen- 
dent member,  of  the  Republican  party.  To  the  close  of  his 
career  he  was  certain  to  be  a  commanding  figure,  around 
whom  all  party  dissenters  would  quickly  and  easily  rally; 
but  it  was  now  an  individual  figure,  almost  an  eccentric  fig- 
ure, whose  work  as  a  political  factor  seemed  to  be  closed. 

Yet  Clinton  was  not  ready  to  go  into  a  second  retirement. 
On  the  theory,  as  he  wrote  Henry  Post,  that  "the  meekness 
of  Quakerism  will  do  in  religion,  but  not  in  politics,"^  he 
looked  about  him  for  something,  to  arouse  public  attention 
and  to  excite  public  indignation,  and,  for  the  want  of  a  bet- 
ter subject,  he  charged  the  Monroe  administration  with  in- 
terference in  the  recent  state  election.  Post  advised  cau- 
tion ;  but  Clinton,  stung  by  the  defeat  of  his  friends  and  by 
his  own  narrow  escape,  had  become  possessed  with  the  sus- 
picion that  federal  officials  had  used  the  patronage  of  the 
government  against  him.  So,  in  his  speech  to  the  Legislature 
in  November,  he  protested  against  the  outrage.  "If  the  of- 
ficers under  the  appointment  of  the  federal  government,'* 

'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  413. 

283 


284  THE  ALBANY  KEGENCY  [Chap,  xx^^. 

he  declared,  "shall  see  fit  as  an  organised  and  disciplined 
corps  to  interfere  in  state  elections,  I  trust  there  will  be 
found  a  becoming  disposition  in  the  people  to  resist  these 
alarming  attempts  upon  the  purity  and  independence  of  their 
local  governments."-  Clinton  had  no  evidence  upon  which  to 
support  this  charge.  It  was,  at  best,  only  a  suspicion  based 
upon  his  own  methods ;  but  the  Senate  demanded  proof,  and 
failing  to  get  specifications,  it  declared  it  "highly  improper 
that  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State  should  incriminate  the 
administration  of  the  general  government,  without  ample 
testimony  in  his  possession.''  The  resolutions  closed  with  an 
expression  of  confidence  in  the  patriotism  and  integrity  of 
the  government. 

Meanwhile,  Clinton  was  urging  Post  to  help  him  out  of 
his  difficulty.  "I  want  authenticated  testimony  of  the  inter- 
ference of  the  general  government  in  our  elections,"  he  wrote 
on  November  19.  "Our  friends  must  be  up  and  doing  on  this 
subject.  It  is  all  important."^  Eight  days  later  he  stirred 
up  Post  again.  "What  is  the  annual  amount  of  patronage 
of  the  national  government  in  this  State?"  he  asked.* 
"Knowing  the  accuracy  of  your  calculations,  I  rely  much 
on  you."  Then  he  developed  his  plan :  "The  course  of  exposi- 
tion ought,  I  think,  to  be  this — to  collect  a  voluminous  mass 
of  documents  detailing  facts,  and  to  form  from  them  a  lucid, 
intelligible  statement.  On  the  representation  of  facts  re- 
course must  also  be  had  to  inferences,  and  it  ought  also  to 
unite  boldness  and  prudence."^  It  is  evident  that  thus  far 
inferences  outnumbered  facts,  for  far  into  December  Clinton 
was  still  calling  upon  his  friends  to  collect  testimony.  "Go 
on  with  your  collection  of  proofs,"  he  wrote.  "I  think  with 
a  little  industry  this  matter  will  stand  well."^ 

^  Governors*  SIpeccJies,  November  7,  1820.  p.  179. 
'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harpers  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  413. 

*  Ibid.,  Vol.  50,  p.  413. 
">  Ibid.,  Vol.  50,  p.  414. 

•  Ibid.,  Vol.  50,  p.  415. 


1821]  THE   GREEN   BAG  MESSAGE  285 

AVhen  submitted  to  the  Legislature,  on  January  17,  1821, 
the  documents,  according  to  the  Governor's  instructions, 
were  indeed  very  voluminous.  It  required  a  bag  to  take  them 
to  the  capitol — the  green  bag  message,  it  was  called ;  but  it 
proved  to  be  smoke,  with  little  fire.  It  fully  established  that 
the  naval  storekeeper  at  Brooklyn,  and  other  federal  offi- 
cials were  offensive  partisans,  just  as  they  had  been  under 
Clinton's  control,  and  just  as  they  have  been  ever  since.  The 
Bucktails  saw  distinctly  enough  that  the  State  could  not  be 
aroused  into  indignation  by  such  a  mass  of  documents ;  but 
there  was  one  letter  from  Van  Buren  to  Henry  Meigs,  the 
congressman,  dated  April  5,  1820,  advising  the  removal  of 
postmasters  at  Bath,  Little  Falls,  and  Oxford,  because  it 
seemed  impossible  to  secure  the  free  circulation  of  Bucktail 
newspapers  in  the  interior  of  the  State,  which  provoked  much 
criticism.  How  the  Governor  got  it  does  not  appear,  but  it 
gives  a  glimpse  of  Van  Buren's  political  methods  that  is  in- 
teresting. ''Unless  we  can  alarm  them  (the  Clintonians)  by 
two  or  three  prompt  removals,"  he  says,  "there  is  no  lim- 
iting the  injurious  consequences  that  may  result  from 
it" 

Soon  after,  two  of  the  postmasters  were  removed.  If  the 
charge  was  true,  that  postmasters  were  preventing  the  circu- 
lation of  Bucktail  newspapers,  Van  Buren's  course  was  very 
charitable.  Evidently  he  did  not  want  places  for  his  friends 
so  much  as  a  proper  delivery  of  the  mails;  for  otherwise  he 
would  have  insisted  upon  the  removal  of  all  offenders.  The 
gentle  suggestion  that  the  removal  of  two  or  three  would 
be  a  warning  to  others,  explains  how  this  devout  lover  of  men 
lived  through  a  long  life  on  most  intimate  terms  with  his 
neighbours.  If  such  conditions  existed  under  the  modern 
management  of  the  Post-Office  Department,  every  wrong- 
doer would  be  summarily  dismissed,  regardless  of  party  or 
creed.  Van  Buren's  methods  had  no  such  drastic  discipline ; 
yet  his  letter  became  the  subject  of  much  animadversion  by 
the  Clintonians,  not  so  much  because  they  disapproved  the 
suggestion  as  because  Van  Buren  wrote  it.    "It  is  very  im- 


286  THE  ALBANY  KEGENCY  [Chap.  xxvi. 

portant  to  destroy  this  prince  of  villains,"  Clinton  declared, 
in  a  letter  to  Post  of  December  2, 1820.^ 

Like  many  other  brilliant  political  leaders,  Van  Buren 
was  somewhat  thin-skinned;  he  happened,  too,  to  be  out  of 
the  State  Senate,  and  thus  was  compelled  to  endure,  in  si- 
lence, the  attacks  of  the  opposition.  It  is  believed  that  at  this 
time,  Van  Buren  had  a  strong  inclination  to  accept  a  Su- 
preme Court  judgeship,  and  thus  withdraw  forever  from  po- 
litical life.  But  the  fates  denied  him  any  chance  of  making 
this  serious  anti-climax  in  his  great  political  career.  While 
the  green  bag  message  convulsed  the  Clintonians  with  simu- 
lated indignation,  the  Bucktails  declared  him,  by  a  caucus 
vote  of  fifty-eight  to  twenty-four,  their  choice  for  United 
States  senator  in  place  of  Nathan  Sanford,  whose  term  ex- 
pired on  March  4,  1821. 

It  appeared  then  as  it  appears  now,  that  Martin  Van 
Buren  was  *'the  inevitable  man."  He  was  thirty-nine  years 
of  age,  in  the  early  ripeness  of  his  powers,  a  leader  at  the  bar, 
and  the  leader  of  his  party.  He  had  accumulated  from  his 
practice  the  beginnings  of  the  fortune  which  his  Dutch  thrift 
and  cautious  habits  made  ample  for  his  needs.  The  sim- 
ple and  natural  rules  governing  his  astute  political  leader- 

'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henr}^  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  415. 

Clearly  discerning  Van  Buren  as  his  most  formidable  competitor 
for  political  leadership,  Clinton's  letters  to  Post  from  1817  to  1824 
abound  in  vituperative  allusions,  as,  for  example:  "Whom  shall  we 
appoint  to  defeat  the  arch  scoundrel  Van  Buren?"  November 30, 1820. 
"Of  his  cowardice  there  can  be  no  doubt.  He  is  lowering-  dailj^  in 
public  opinion,  and  is  emphatically  a  corrupt  scoundrel,"  August 
30,  1820.  "Van  Biiren  is  now  excessively  hated  out  of  the  State  as 
well  as  in  it.  There  is  no  doubt  of  a  corrupt  sale  of  the  vote  of 
the  State,  although  it  cannot  be  proved  in  a  court  of  justice," 
August  6,  1824.  "We  can  place  no  reliance  upon  the  goodwill  of 
Van  Buren.  In  his  politics  he  is  a  confirmed  knave."  And  again: 
"With  respect  to  Van  Buren,  there  is  no  developing  the  man.  He  is 
a  scoundrel  of  the  first  magnitude,  .  .  .  without  any  fixture  of  prin- 
ciple or  really  of  virtue."  "Van  Buren  must  be  conquered  through 
his  fears.    He  has  no  heart,  no  sincerity." 


1821]  VAN   BUREN   IN  THE   SENATE  28 r 

ship  seemed  to  leave  him  without  a  rival,  or,  at  least,  with- 
out an  opponent  who  could  get  in  his  way.  Times  had 
changed,  too,  since  the  days  when  United  States  senators  re- 
signed to  become  postmasters  and  mayors  of  New  York.  A 
seat  in  the  United  States  Senate  had  become  a  great  honour, 
because  it  was  a  place  of  great  power  and  great  influence; 
and  in  passing  from  Albany  to  Washington  Van  Buren 
would  add  to  state  leadership  an  opportunity  of  becom- 
ing a  national  figure.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
Clinton  sought  to  defeat  him ;  for  he  had  ever  been  ready  to 
retaliate  upon  men  who  ventured  to  cross  his  purposes.  But 
Clinton's  scheme  had  no  place  in  the  plans  of  Bucktails.  "I 
am  afraidVan  Buren  will  beat  Sanford  for  senator,"  he  wrote 
Post  as  early  as  the  30th  of  December,  1820.  ''He  will  unless 
his  friends  stand  out  against  a  caucus  decision."^  This  is 
what  Clinton  wanted  the  twenty-four  Sanford  delegates  to 
do,  and,  to  encourage  such  a  bolt,  he  compelled  every  Feder- 
alist and  Clintonian,  save  one,  to  vote  for  him,  although  San- 
ford represented  Tammany  and  its  bitter  hostility  to  Clin- 
ton. But  the  Bucktails  had  at  last  established  a  party 
organisation  that  could  not  be  divided  by  Clinton  intrigue^ 
and  Van  Buren  received  the  full  party  vote. 

When  Roger  Skinner  and  his  three  associates  on  the  new 
Council  of  Appointment  got  to  work,  Clinton  quickly  discov- 
ered that  he  could  expect  little  from  such  a  body  of  Buck- 
tails  ;  and  he  received  less  than  he  expected.  For,  when  the 
Council  had  finished,  only  one  Clintonian  remained  in  office. 
Oakley,  the  able  attorney-general ;  Jay,  the  gifted  recorder 
of  New  York ;  Colden,  the  acceptable  mayor  of  New  York ; 
Hawley,  the  ideal  superintendent  of  common  schools;  Solo- 
mon Van  Rensselaer,  the  famous  and  fearless  adjutant-gen- 
eral ;  Mclntyre,  the  trusted  and  competent  comptroller,  had 
all  disappeared  in  a  night.  Only  Simeon  DeWitt,  who  had 
been  surveyor-general  for  forty  years,  was  left  undisturbed. 
Former  Councils  had  been  radical  and  vigorous  in  their  ac- 

*  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harpefs  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  414. 


288  THE  ALBANY  EEGENCY  [Chap.  xxvi. 

tion,  but  the  Skinner  council  cut  as  deep  and  swift  as  the 
famous  Clinton  Council  of  1801.  At  its  first  meeting,  clerks 
and  sheriffs  and  surrogates  and  district  attorneys  fell  in 
windrows.  Yet  it  was  no  worse  than  its  predecessors;  it 
could  not  be  worse,  since  precedents  existed  in  support  of 
conduct  however  scandalous. 

The  removal  of  Hawley,  Mclntjre,  and  Van  Rensselaer 
produced  a  greater  sensation  throughout  the  State  than  any 
previous  dismissals,  except  that  of  DeWitt  Clinton  from 
the  mayoralty  in  1815.  Gideon  Hawley  had  held  the  oflSce 
of  school  superintendent  for  nine  years,  organising  the  State 
into  school  districts,  distributing  the  school  fund  equitably, 
and  perfecting  the  work,  so  that  the  entire  system  could  be 
easily  handled  by  a  superintendent.  In  1818,  he  reported 
five  thousand  schools  thus  organised,  with  upward  of  two 
hundred  thousand  pupils  in  attendance  for  a  period  of  four 
to  six  months  each  year.  He  did  this  work  on  a  salary  of 
three  hundred  dollars — only  to  receive,  at  last,  in  place  of 
thanks  so  richly  deserved,  the  unmerited  rebuke  of  a  sum- 
mary dismissal. 

The  removal  of  Archibald  McTntyre  made  a  sensation  al- 
most as  great.  For  fifteen  years,  Mclntyre  had  been  such  an 
acceptable  comptroller  that  the  waves  of  factional  and  party 
strife  had  broken  at  his  feet,  leaving  him  master  of  the 
State's  finances.  The  Lewisites  retained  him  in  1807;  the 
Federalists  kept  him  in  1809 ;  the  Republicans  continued  him 
in  1811;  the  Federalists  again  spared  him  in  1813;  wiiile  the 
frequent  changes  that  followed  Clinton's  downfall  left  him 
undisturbed.  He  took  no  part  in  political  contests.  It  was 
his  duty  to  see  that  the  State's  money  was  paid  according 
to  law,  and  he  so  conducted  the  office;  but  the  Bucktails 
deeply  resented  his  treatment  of  the  Vice  President,  and  a 
swift  removal  was  the  penalty.  In  some  degree  Mclntyre 
may  have  been  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  Tompkins.  The 
perfervid  strength  of  his  convictions  as  to  the  injustice  of 
the  Vice  President's  claim  betrayed  him  into  an  intemper- 
ance of  language  that  suggests  overzeal  in  a  public  official. 


1821]  SAMUEL   A.    TALCOTT  289 

In  refusing,  too,  to  balance  the  Vice  President's  accounts, 
as  the  Legislature  clearly  intended,  and  as  he  might  have 
done  regardless  of  the  Vice  President's  additional  claim,  he 
seems  to  have  assumed  an  unnecessary  responsibility,  and 
to  have  learned  what  many  men  have  experienced  in  public 
life,  that  nothing  is  so  dangerous  as  being  too  faithful.  But 
Mclntyre  may  have  had  no  reason  to  regret  his  removal.  He 
was  immediately  returned  to  the  Legislature  as  a  senator, 
and  the  next  year  appointed  agent  for  the  state  lotteries,  a 
business  that  enabled  him  in  a  few  years  to  retire  with  an 
independent  fortune. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  introduce  here  a  full  list  of  the  new 
office-holders;  but  there  came  into  notice  at  this  time  three 
young  lawyers  who  subsequently  occupied  a  conspicuous 
place  in  the  history  of  their  State  and  country.  Samuel 
A.  Talcott  took  the  place  of  Thomas  J.  Oakley  as  attorney- 
general  ;  William  L.  Marcy  became  adjutant-general  in  place 
of  Van  Rensselaer,  and  Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  appointed 
district  attorney  of  Albany  County.  Marcy  was  then  thirty- 
five  years  of  age,  Talcott  thirty-two,  and  Butler  twenty-six. 
Talcott  was  tall  and  commanding,  with  high  forehead  and 
large  mellow  blue  eyes  that  inspired  confidence  and  admira- 
tion. His  manners  combined  dignity  and  ease;  and  as  he 
swept  along  the  street,  or  stood  before  judge  or  jury,  he  ap- 
peared like  nature's  nobleman.  Marcy  had  a  bold,  full  fore- 
head, with  heavy  brows  and  eyes  deep  set  and  expressive.  It 
was  decidedly  a  Websterian  head,  though  the  large,  firm 
mouth  and  admirably  moulded  chin  rather  recalled  those  of 
Henry  Clay.  The  face  would  have  been  austere,  forbidding 
easy  approach,  except  for  the  good-natured  twinkle  in  the 
eye  and  a  quiet  smile  lingering  about  the  mouth.  Marcy 
was  above  the  ordinary  height,  with  square,  powerful  shoul- 
ders, and  carried  some  superfluous  flesh  as  he  grew  older; 
but,  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing,  he  was  as  erect  as 
the  day  he  captured  St.  Regis.  Butler  was  slighter  than 
Marcy,  and  shorter  than  Talcott,  but  much  larger  than  Van 
Buren,  with  fulness  of  form  and  perfect  proportions.     He 


290  THE  ALBANY  EEGENCY  [Chap.  xxvi. 

had  an  indescribable  refinement  of  face  which  seemed  to 
come  from  the  softness  of  the  eye  and  the  tenderness  and  in- 
tellectuality of  the  mouth,  which  reflected  his  gentle  and 
generous  spirit. 

At  the  time  of  Talcott's  appointment,  though  he  had  not 
distinguished  himself  as  a  legal  competitor  of  Van  Buren, 
he  displayed  the  gentle  manners  and  amiable  traits  that  nat- 
urally commended  him  to  one  of  Van  Buren's  smooth,  adroit 
methods.  The  Kinderhook  statesman  had,  however,  in  select- 
ing him  for  attorney-general,  looked  beyond  the  charming 
personality  to  the  rapidly  developing  powers  of  the  lawyer, 
who  was  even  then  captivating  all  hearers  by  the  strength 
of  his  arguments  and  the  splendour  of  his  diction.  Contempo- 
raries of  Talcott  were  fond  of  telling  of  this  remarkable, 
almost  phenomenal  gift  of  speech.  One  of  them  mentions 
''those  magical  transitions  from  the  subtlest  argument  to  the 
deepest  pathos ;"  another  describes  him  as  "overpowering  in 
the  weight  of  his  intellect,  who  produced  in  the  minds  of  his 
audience  all  the  sympathy  and  emotion  of  which  the  mind 
is  capable."  William  H.  Dillingham,  a  classmate  and  life- 
long friend,  declared  that  the  extraordinary  qualities  which 
marked  his  career  and  so  greatly  distinguished  him  in  after 
life — towering  genius,  astonishing  facility  in  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  surpassing  eloquence,  were  developed  during 
his  college  days.  The  life  of  Talcott  recalls,  in  its  brilliant 
activity,  the  dazzling  legal  career  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 
Wherever  the  greatest  lawyers  gathered  he  was  in  their 
midst,  the  "Erskine  of  the  bar."  At  his  last  appearance  in 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  he  opposed  Daniel 
Webster  in  the  "Sailors'  Snug  Harbor"  case.  "Beginning  in 
a  low  and  measured  tone,"  says  Bacon,  in  his  Early  Bar  of 
Oneida  County,  "he  gathered  strength  and  power  as  he  pro- 
ceeded in  his  masterly  discourse,  and  for  five  hours  held  the 
breathless  attention  of  bench  and  bar  and  audience,  in  an  ar- 
gument which  the  illustrious  Marshall  declared  had  not  been 
equalled  in  that  court  since  the  days  of  the  renowned 
William  Pinckney." 


1821]  BENJAMIN  F.   BUTLER  291 

Benjamin  F.  Butler  was  very  much  like  Talcott  in  gentle- 
ness of  manner  and  in  power  of  intellect.  He  was  born  in 
Kiuderhook,  Columbia  Countj^,  where  his  father,  starting  as  a 
mechanic,  became  a  merchant,  and,  after  a  brief  service  in 
the  Legislature,  received  the  appointment  of  county  judge. 
But  there  was  no  more  reason  to  expect  Medad  Butler  to 
bring  an  illustrious  son  into  the  world  than  there  was  that 
his  neighbour,  Abraham  Van  Buren,  should  be  the  father  of 
the  eighth  President  of  the  United  States.  Thirteen  years 
divided  the  ages  of  Van  Buren  and  Butler;  and,  while  the 
latter  attended  the  district  school  and  aided  his  father  about 
the  store,  Van  Buren  was  practising  law  and  talking  politics 
with  Butler's  father.  Young  Butler  was  not  a  dreamer.  He 
had  no  wild  ambition  to  be  great,  and  cherished  no  thought 
of  sitting  in  cabinets  or  controlling  the  policy  of  a  great 
party;  but  his  quiet,  respectful  manners  and  remarkable 
acuteness  of  mind  attracted  Van  Buren.  When  Van  Buren 
went  to  Hudson  as  surrogate  of  the  county,  Butler  entered 
the  Hudson  academy.  There  he  distinguished  himself,  as 
he  had  already  distinguished  himself  in  the  little  district 
school,  acquiring  a  decided  fondness  for  the  classics.  His 
teachers  predicted  for  him  a  brilliant  college  career;  but, 
whatever  his  reasons,  he  gave  up  the  college,  and,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  entered  Van  Buren's  law  office  and  Van  Buren's 
family.  On  his  admission  to  the  bar,  in  1817,  he  became  Van 
Buren's  partner  at  Albany. 

Though  Talcott  began  life  a  Federalist,  in  the  party  break- 
up he  joined  the  Bucktails,  with  Butler  and  Van  Buren. 
It  seemed  to  be  a  love  match — the  relations  between  Talcott 
and  Butler.  They  were  frequently  associated  in  the  most 
important  cases,  the  possession  of  scholarly  tastes  being  the 
powerful  magnet  that  drew  them  together.  Talcott,  at  Wil- 
liams College,  had  evidenced  an  astonishing  facility  for  ac- 
quiring knowledge;  Butler,  after  leaving  the  academy,  had 
continued  the  study  of  the  languages  until  he  could  read  his 
favourite  authors  in  the  original  with  great  ease.  This  was 
their  delight.    Neither  of  them  took  naturally  to  public  ser- 


292  THE  ALBANY  REGENCY  [Chap.  xxvi. 

vice,  though  offices  seemed  to  seek  them  at  every  turn  of  the 
road — United  States  senator,  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  seats  in  the  cabinets  of  three  Presidents.  Nevertheless, 
with  the  exception  of  a  brief  service  under  Jackson  and  Van 
Buren,  Butler  declined  all  the  flattering  ofifers  that  came 
to  him. 

It  was  Marcy  who  seemed  born  for  a  politician.  A  staid 
old  Federalist  teacher  sent  him  away  from  school  at  fourteen 
years  of  age,  because  of  his  love  for  Jefifersonian  principles 
and  his  fondness  for  argument.  The  early  years  of  this  Mas- 
sachusetts lad  seem  to  have  been  strangely  varied  and  vexed. 
He  was  the  leader  of  a  band  of  noisy,  roguish  boys  who 
made  the  schoolroom  uncomfortable  for  the  teacher,  and  the 
neighbourhood  uncomfortable  for  the  parents.  Neither  the 
father  nor  his  wife  appear  to  have  had  any  idea  of  their  good 
fortune.  Mrs.  Marcy  once  declared  him  the  worst  boy  in 
the  country.  He  showed  little  disposition  to  study  and  less 
inclination  to  work;  yet  it  was  noticed  that  he  read  all  the 
books  to  be  found  in  the  homes  of  his  playfellows  and  in  the 
libraries  of  the  district.  The  character  of  the  books  made 
no  difference ;  he  preferred  reading  anything  to  reading  noth- 
ing, though  history  and  general  literature,  such  as  the 
works  of  Addison,  on  whose  style  he  seems  to  have  moulded 
his  own,  were  his  favourite  volumes.  When,  at  last,  he  met 
Salem  Towne,  his  earliest,  and,  in  a  sense,  his  best  education 
began.  Towne  recognised  the  latent  genius  of  the  lad  and 
told  him  of  it,  encouraging  him  to  enter  college  and  the  law. 
Marcy  -used  often  to  declare,  in  later  years,  that  he  owed 
everything  he  ever  gained  in  life  to  the  influence  and  example 
of  Salem  Towne.  The  affectionate  regard  which  Marcy  felt 
for  his  boyhood  friend,  a  regard  which  endured  until  the  day 
of  his  death,  belongs  to  the  chapter  of  pathetic  incidents  in 
Marcy 's  life. 

Soon  after  leaving  Brown  University,  Marcy  settled  in 
Troy  and  became  violently  hostile  to  DeWitt  Clinton.  After 
Clinton's  downfall,  he  was  appointed  recorder  of  Troy ;  and 
after  Clinton's  restoration,  he  was  promptly  removed.    Just 


1821]  WILLIAM  L.  MAECY  293 

now  he  was  trying  to  practise  law,  and  to  edit  the  Troy 
Budget,  a  Bucktail  newspaper ;  but  he  preferred  to  read,  sit- 
ting with  his  unblacked  boots  on  the  table,  careless  of  his 
dress,  and  indifferent  to  his  personal  appearance.  He  looked 
dull  and  inactive,  and  people  thought  he  lacked  the  industry 
and  energy  so  necessary  to  success  in  any  profession;  but 
when  the  Budget  appeared,  its  editorials  made  men  read  and 
reflect.  It  was  the  skill  with  which  he  marshalled  facts  in  a 
gentle  and  winning  style  that  attracted  Van  Buren  and  made 
them  friends. 

Marcy's  appointment  as  adjutant-general  created  intense 
indignation,  because  he  took  the  place  of  Solomon  Van 
Rensselaer,  who  had  served  in  the  War  of  1812,  bravely  lead- 
ing the  attack  on  Queenstown  Heights  and  holding  his 
ground  until  dislodged  by  superior  force ;  but,  it  was  said  in 
reply,  that  Marcy  had  the  honour  of  capturing  the  first  Brit- 
ish fort  and  the  first  Brtish  flag  of  the  war.  The  fight  was 
not  a  bloody  encounter  like  the  Queenstown  engagement; 
yet,  for  men  new  to  war,  it  evidenced  coolness  and  great  cour- 
age. A  detachment  of  British  soldiers  had  taken  a  position 
at  St.  Regis,  seven  miles  from  the  American  camp.  Selecting 
one  hundred  and  seventy  picked  men.  Lieutenant  Marcy  cau- 
tiously approached  the  fort  at  night,  overpowered  the  guards 
on  the  outposts,  surprised  the  sentries  at  the  entrance,  broke 
down  the  gates,  and  charged  the  enemy  in  the  face  of  a  vol- 
ley of  musketry.  When  it  was  over  he  had  the  fort,  a  file  of 
prisoners,  several  stands  of  arms,  and  a  flag.  Van  Buren 
thought  this  record  was  good  enough. 

The  appointment  of  Talcott,  Marcy,  and  Butler  changed 
the  existing  political  system.  Prior  to  their  activity,  the 
distribution  of  patronage  depended  largely  upon  the  local 
boss.  His  needs  determined  the  men  who,  regardless  of  their 
personal  fitness,  should  be  given  office.  But  Talcott  and  his 
colleagues  introduced  new  methods,  with  a  higher  standard 
of  political  morality,  and  a  better  system  of  party  discipline. 
They  refused  to  tolerate  unworthy  men,  and  when  the  little 
souls  stormed  and  raged,  their  wise  counsels  silenced  the  self- 


294  THE  ALBANY  KEGENCY  [Chap.  xxvi. 

ish  and  staggered  the  boss.  Gradually,  their  control  of  pat- 
ronage and  of  the  party's  policy  became  so  absolute  that  they 
were  called  the  "Albany  Regency."  It  was,  at  first,  simply 
a  name  given  them  by  Thurlow  Weed ;  ^  there  was  neither 
organisation  nor  legal  authority.  Power  came  from  their 
great  ability  and  high  purpose. 

The  Albany  Regency  was  destined  to  continue  many  years, 
and  to  number  among  its  members  men  of  character  and 
great  influence.  Roger  Skinner,  a  United  States  district 
judge,  was  an  early  member  of  it;  so  were  Edwin  Croswell 
of  the  Albany  Argus,  and  Benjamin  Knower,  the  state  treas- 
urer. At  a  later  day  came  John  A.  Dix,  Azariah  C.  Flagg, 
Silas  Wright,  and  Charles  E.  Dudley.  In  his  autobiography, 
Thurlow  Weed  says  he  *'had  never  known  a  body  of  men  who 
possessed  so  much  power  and  used  it  so  well."  They  had, 
he  continues,  ''great  ability,  great  industry,  indomitable 
<'0urage,  and  strict  personal  integrity."^"  But  the  men  who 
organised  the  Regency,  giving  it  power  and  the  respect  of  the 
people,  by  refusing  to  do  what  their  fine  sense  of  honour  did 
not  approve,  were  Talcott,  Marcy,  and  Butler.  It  was  as 
remarkable  a  trio  as  ever  sat  about  a  table. 

In  the  passing  of  these  three  great  intellects,  there  is 
something  peculiarly  touching.  Talcott  died  suddenly  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-five,  leaving  the  members  of  the  New  York 
bar  as  sincere  mourners.  Butler,  after  the  highest  and  purest 
living,  died  at  fifty-nine,  just  as  he  landed  in  France  to  visit 
the  scenes  of  which  he  had  read  and  dreamed.  Marcy,  at 
sixty-two,  having  recently  retired  as  President  Pierce's  sec- 
retary of  state,  was  found  lifeless,  lying  upon  his  bed,  book 
in  hand.  He  had  been  reading,  as  he  had  read  since  child- 
hood, whenever  there  came  a  lull  in  the  d-^mand  for  his  wis- 
dom, his  counsel,  and  his  frierdshi'^  ^^    '       \ 

'  Thurlow  Weed  Barnes,  Life  of  Thvrlow  Weeti,       ,1.  2,  p.  36. 

^"AMtobiooropliy  of  Thurloio  Weed,  Vol.  1,  p.  103!'^ 

"  "Always  an  honoured  citizen  of  New  York,  it  has  seemed  fitting 
that  the  highest  mountain-peak  in  the  State  by  bearing  his  name 
should  serve  as  a  monument  to  his  memory." — James  F.  Ehodes, 
Eistory  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  1,  p.  247. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
THE  THIRD  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION 

1821 

New  England  people,  passing  through  the  Mohawk  Valley 
into  the  rich  country  beyond  Seneca  Lake,  found  many  rea- 
sons for  settling  in  central  and  western  New  York.  Out  of 
this  section  the  Legislature  organised  twelve  new  counties 
in  1812.  The  sixteen  counties  that  existed  in  the  State,  in 
1790,  had  increased  to  fifty-five  in  1820.  Settlers  had  rapidly 
filled  up  the  whole  region.  New  York  City,  according  to  the  w 
third  census,  had  123,706  inhabitants,  and,  of  these,  only  /^ 
5390  were  unnaturalised  foreigners.  Indeed,  the  population 
of  the  State,  in  1820,  was  made  up  largely  of  native  Ameri- 
cans; and  the  descendants  of  English  families  outnumbered 
those  of  the  Dutch. 

Administrative  reform  had  not,  however,  kept  pace  with  the 
increase  in  population.  The  number  of  freeholders  qualified 
to  vote  for  senator  and  governor,  was,  relatively,  no  larger ; 
the  power  of  the  Council  of  Appointment  had  become  odious ; 
the  veto  of  the  Council  of  Revision  distasteful ;  and  the  sit- 
tings of  the  Supreme  Court  infrequent.  It  was  said  that 
the  members  of  the  Council  of  Revision,  secure  from  removal, 
had  resisted  the  creation  of  additional  judges,  until  the 
speedy  administrr  of  justice  was  a  lost  art.    Gradually, 

the  spirit  that  d^  .Jed  iiidep..iidence,  in  1776,  began  to  in- 
sist upon  a  broader  suffrage  and  additional  rights.  The  New 
Englanders  in  the  central,  western,  and  northern  parts  of 
the  State  had  very  pronounced  sentiments  upon  the  subject 
of  reform.    They  sympathised  little  with  the  views  of  the 

295 


296  THIED  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvii. 

landowning  and  conservative  classes  that  largely  controlled 
the  making  of  the  Constitution  of  1777.  The  people  of  New 
York  City,  as  well,  who  had  increased  over  fifty  per  cent,  in 
twelve  years,  clamoured  for  a  radical  change  in  conditions 
that  seemed  to  them  to  have  no  application  to  life  in  a 
republic. 

Nevertheless,  the  politicians  were  slow  in  recognising  the 
necessity  of  amending    the  State    Constitution.     Although 
trouble  increased  from  year  to  year,  governors  avoided  rec- 
ommendations;  and  legislators  hesitated  to  put  in  motion 
a  the  machinery  for  correcting  abuses.    After  Clinton  had  de- 
Hfeated  Tompkins  for  governor,  in  1820,  however,  the  agita- 
Iption  suddenly  blazed  into  a  flame.     Tammany  resolved  in 
favour  of  a  convention  having  unlimited  powers  to  amend  the 
Constitution.    Following  this  suggestion.  Governor  Clinton, 
in  his  speech  to  the  Legislature  in  November,  1820,  recom- 
mended that  the  question  be  submitted  to  the  people.     But 
the  Bucktails,  indifferent  to  the  views  of  their  opponents, 
pushed  through  a  bill  calling  for  a  convention  with  unlimited 
powers,  whose  work  should  subsequently  be  submitted  in 
gross  to  the  people  for  ratification  or  rejection. 

Governor  Clinton  preferred  a  convention  of  limited  pow- 
ers, a  convention  that  could  not  abolish  the  judiciary  or  turn 
out  of  office  the  only  friends  left  him.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
not  easy  for  a  governor,  who  loved  popularity,  to  take  a  po- 
sition against  the  Bucktail  bill;  for  the  popular  mind,  if  it 
had  not  yet  formally  expressed  itself  on  the  subject,  was  well 
understood  to  favour  a  convention.  When,  therefore,  the  bill 
came  before  the  Council  of  Revision,  Clinton  thought  he  had 
taken  good  care  to  have  a  majority  present  to  disapprove  it, 
without  his  assistance.  Van  Ness  and  Piatt  were  absent 
holding  court;  but,  of  the  others,  Joseph  C.  Yates,  the  only 
Bucktail  on  the  bench,  was  presumably  the  only  one  likely 
to  favour  it.  Chancellor  Kent,  in  giving  his  reasons  for  disap- 
proving the  measure,  contended  that  the  Legislature  had  no 
constitutional  authority  to  create  a  convention  of  unlimited 
powers,  and,  if  it  did,  it  should  require  the  convention  to  sub- 


1821]  CLINTON'S  DILEMMA  297 

mit  its  amendments  to  the  people  separately  and  not  in 
gross.  Spencer  agreed  with  the  Chancellor.  Yates,  as  ex- 
pected, approved  the  bill,  but  there  was  consternation  in  the 
Council  when  Woodworth  agreed  with  Yates.  Woodworth 
was  the  creature  of  Clinton.  He  had  made  him  a  judge,  and, 
having  done  so,  the  Governor  relied  with  confidence  upon  his 
support,  in  preference  to  that  of  either  Van  Ness  or  Jonas 
Piatt.  It  recalls  the  mistake  of  the  historic  conclave  which 
elected  a  Pope  whom  the  cardinals  believed  too  feeble  to  have 
any  will  of  his  own,  but  who  suddenly  became  their  master. 
One  can  easily  understand  Clinton's  dilemma.  He  wanted 
the  bill  disapproved  without  his  aid;  Woodworth's  action 
compelled  him  to  do  the  very  thing  he  had  planned  to  avoid. 
To  the  day  of  his  death,  Clinton  never  got  over  the  affront. 
"Yates  and  Woodworth  were  both  frightened  and  have 
damned  themselves,"  he  wrote  Henry  Post,  on  the  27th  of  No- 
vember, 1820,  "The  latter  supposed  also  that  he  would  dis- 
tinguish himself  by  his  independence.  I  don't  know  a  fellow 
more  intrinsically  despicable.    I  intend  the  first  convenient 

opportunity  to  cut  him  to  the  quick,    Y is  a  miserable 

fellow — the  dupe  of  his  own  vanity  and  the  tool  of  bad  prin- 
ciples!"^ Woodworth's  action  was  severely  criticised;  and 
when,  shortly  afterward,  the  Bucktails  in  the  Senate  sitting 
as  a  Court  of  Errors,  reversed  a  judgment  against 
him  for  several  thousand  dollars,  overruling  the  opinion  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  it  seemed  to  impeach  the  purity  of  his 
motives. 

After  Clinton  had  voted  in  the  Council,  the  convention 
bill,  thus  vetoed,  did  not  get  the  necessary  two-thirds  sup- 
port. At  the  regular  session  of  the  Legislature,  which  began 
in  January,  1821,  an  amendment  was  accepted  submitting 
to  the  people  the  simple  question  of  a  convention  or  no  con- 
vention. Of  the  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  votes 
cast,  one  hundred  and  nine  thousand  favoured  a  convention. 
Delegates  were  then  elected;  and  the  convention,  having 

^DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  415. 


298  THIKD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvir. 

been  organised,  continued  in  session  from  August  28  to  No- 
vember 10,  1821. 

This  convention  passed  into  history  as  a  remarkable  gath- 
ering of  distinguished  persons.  With  a  few  exceptions,  all 
the  men  then  living,  whose  names  have  figured  in  these  pages, 
took  an  active  part  in  its  deliberations;  and  by  their  elo- 
quence and  ability  contributed  to  a  constitution  which  was 
to  answer  the  purposes  of  a  rapidly  growing  State  for  an- 
other quarter  of  a  century.  John  Jay,  the  constitution- 
maker  of  1777,  then  seventy-six  years  of  age,  who  still  lived 
upon  his  farm,  happy  in  his  rustic  tastes  and  in  his  simple 
pleasures,  was  represented  by  his  gifted  son,  Peter  A.  Jay 
of  Westchester;  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  came  from  Richmond; 
Rufus  King  from  Queens;  Nathan  Sanford  and  Jacob  Rad- 
cliff  from  New  York;  James  Kent,  Ambrose  Spencer,  Abra- 
ham Van  Vechten,  and  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  from  Al- 
bany; Jonas  Piatt,  Ezekiel  Bacon,  and  Nathan  Williams 
from  Oneida;  William  W.  Van  Ness,  Elisha  Williams,  and 
Jacob  R.  Van  Rensselaer  from  Columbia;  and  James  Tall- 
madge  and  Peter  R.  Livingston  from  Dutchess.  There  was 
one  new  name  among  them — Samuel  Nelson  of  Cortland,  a 
young  man,  yet  destined  to  become  a  well-known  and  influ- 
ential chief  justice  of  the  State,  and  an  associate  justice  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  The  Federalists  of  Al- 
bany did  not  return  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  now  made  his 
home  in  their  city ;  but  the  people  of  Otsego  honoured  them' 
selves  and  greatly  strengthened  the  convention  by  making 
him  their  representative.  He  was  clearly  its  leader.  Root 
and  Young  did  more  talking,  but  when  others  had  argued 
until  argument  seemed  hopeless.  Van  Buren  usually  spoke 
the  last  word  with  success. 

From  the  first,  it  was  recognised  that  Clinton's  friends 
were  without  influence.  They  could  talk  and  vote,  but  the 
convention  was  a  Bucktail  body,  in  which  the  election  of 
delegates,  the  choice  of  a  president,  the  appointment  of  com- 
mittees, the  selection  of  chairmen,  and  the  transaction  of 
business  were  made  party  questions.    The  vote  of  sixteen  to 


1821]  BUCKTAIL  CHAIRMEN  299 

ninety-four  for  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  for  president,  showed 
Bucktail  delegates  overwhelmingly  in  the  majority.  Of  the 
chairmen  of  the  ten  standing  committees,  all  were  prominent 
Bucktail  leaders,  save  Rufus  King,  who  had  practically 
ceased  to  act  with  the  Federalists  of  his  State,  and  James 
Tallmadge,  who  ended  his  affection  for  DeWitt  Clinton  when 
the  latter  preferred  Thomas  J.  Oakley  for  attorney-general. 

The  convention's  work  centred  about  three  great  princi- 
ples— broader  suffrage,  enlarged  local  government,  and  a 
more  popular  judiciary  system.  There  was  no  difficulty  in 
abolishing  the  Councils  of  Appointment  and  of  Revision;  in 
clothing  the  governor  with  power  of  veto ;  in  fixing  his  term 
of  office  at  two  years  instead  of  three ;  and  in  making  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature  ineligible  for  appointment  to  office. 
But,  on  the  questions  of  suffrage  and  the  judiciary,  the  con- 
vention was  thrown  into  weeks  of  violent  debate,  memorable 
by  prophecies  never  fulfilled,  and  by  criticism  that  the  future 
quickly  disproved.  In  respect  to  the  suffrage,  there  were 
practically  three  different  views.  A  few  members  favoured 
freehold  qualifications ;  a  larger  number  believed  in  universal 
suffrage;  while  others  stood  between  the  two,  desiring  the 
abolition  of  a  freehold  qualification,  yet  opposing  universal 
suffrage  and  wishing  to  place  some  restrictions  on  the  right 
to  vote.  Erastus  Root  and  Samuel  Young  ably  represented 
the  second  class ;  Ambrose  Spencer  and  the  Federalists  were 
intensely  loyal  to  a  freehold  qualification;  and  Van  Buren, 
backed  probably  by  a  majority  of  the  convention,  presented 
the  compromise  view. 

Preliminary  to  the  great  debate,  a  lively  skirmish  occurred 
over  the  limitation  of  suffrage  to  the  white  voter.  Strangely 
enough,  this  proposition  was  sustained  by  Erastus  Root,  the 
ardent  champion  of  universal  suffrage  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery ;  and  it  was  opposed  with  equal  warmth  by  Peter  A. 
Jay  and  the  Federalists,  who  advocated  a  freehold  qualifica- 
tion. Van  Buren  did  not  speak,  but  he  voted  for  the  resolu- 
tion, to  eliminate  the  word  "white,"  which  was  carried  by  a 
close  vote — sixty-three  to  fifty-nine.    Then  it  was  proposed 


300  THIKD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvii. 

that  coloured  voters  should  be  freeholders.  Again  the  advo- 
cates of  universal  suffrage  favoured  the  proposition,  and  the 
friends  of  a  freehold  qualification  opposed  it;  but  this  time 
the  convention  decided  against  the  negro,  thirty-three  to  sev- 
enty-one. New  York  was  slow  to  give  equal  suffrage  to  the 
blacks.  Nearly  three  fourths  of  the  voters  of  the  State  with- 
held it  in  1846;  and,  six  years  after  President  Lincoln's 
emancipation  proclamation,  when  the  black  soldier  had 
served  his  country  throughout  the  Civil  War  with  a  fidelity 
and  courage  that  awoke  the  strongest  emotions  of  a  patriotic 
people,  it  was  again  refused. 

The  debate,  however,  which  aroused  the  greatest  interest, 
and  in  which  members  of  the  convention  most  generally  par- 
ticipated, sprang  from  Ambrose  Spencer's  proposition  limit- 
ing to  freeholders  the  right  to  vote  for  senators.  It  must 
have  occurred  to  the  Chief  Justice  that  the  convention  was 
against  him,  because  its  committee  had  unanimously  agreed 
to  abolish  the  freehold  qualification;  and,  further,  because 
the  convention,  by  its  action  on  the  negro  question,  had  dem- 
onstrated its  purpose  to  wipe  out  all  property  distinctions 
among  white  voters ;  yet  Spencer,  at  this  eleventh  hour,  pro- 
posed to  re-establish  a  freehold  difference  between  senators 
and  assemblymen.  The  Chief  Justice,  with  all  his  faults,  and 
they  were  many  and  grave,  had  in  him  the  capacity  of  a 
statesman;  but  it  was  a  statesman  of  fifty  years 
before.  He  had  learned  little  by  experience.  The 
prejudices  of  Jay  and  other  patriots  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, still  lingered  in  his  mind,  arousing  painful  apprehen- 
sions of  what  would  happen  if  the  exclusive  privileges  of 
landowners  should  disappear,  and  robbing  him  of  that  faith 
in  the  people  which  made  Erastus  Root  the  forerunner  of  the 
broad  suffrage  that  obtains  to-day.  Chancellor  Kent  backed 
Spencer's  proposition  in  an  abler  speech  than  that  made  by 
the  Chief  Justice  himself.  Kent  was  an  honourable,  upright 
statesman,  who,  unlike  Spencer,  had  never  wavered  in  his 
fealty  to  that  federalism  which  had  been  learned  at  the  feet 
of  John  Jay  and  Alexander  Hamilton ;  but,  like  Spencer,  he 


1 


1821]  A  BEOADER  SUFFRAGE  301 

had  failed  to  discover  that  the  people,  jealous  of  their  rights 
and  liberties,  could  be  trusted  regardless  of  property  hold- 
ings. *'By  the  report  before  us,"  he  said,  "we  propose  to  an- 
nihilate, at  one  stroke,  all  property  distinctions,  and  to  bow 
before  the  idol  of  universal  suffrage.  That  extreme  demo- 
cratic principle  has  been  regarded  with  terror  by  the  wise 
men  of  every  age,  because  in  every  European  republic,  an- 
cient and  modern,  in  which  it  has  been  tried,  it  has  termi- 
nated disastrously,  and  been  productive  of  corruption,  injus- 
tice, violence,  and  tyranny.  And  dare  we  flatter  ourselves 
that  we  are  a  peculiar  people,  who  can  run  the  career  of  his- 
tory exempted  from  the  passions  which  have  disturbed  and 
corrupted  the  rest  of  mankind  ?  If  we  are  like  other  races  of 
men,  with  similar  follies  and  vices,  then  I  greatly  fear  that 
our  posterity  will  have  reason  to  deplore  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes  the  delusion  of  the  day."^ 

Though  Erastus Root  and  Samuel  Young  employed  all  their 
eloquence  and  all  their  energy  against  Spencer's  proposition, 
it  was  Martin  Van  Buren's  speech  which  made  the  deepest 
impression.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  latter's  remarks  de- 
feated the  amendment,  because  the  vote  of  nineteen  to  one 
hundred,  showed  no  one  behind  the  Chief  Justice's  proposal 
save  himself  and  a  few  Federalists.  But  Van  Buren  greatly 
strengthened  the  report  of  the  committee,  which  gave  a  vote 
to  every  male  citizen  twenty-one  yeavsi  old,  who  had  resided 
six  months  in  the  State  and  who  had  within  one  year  paid 
taxes  or  a  road  assessment,  or  had  been  enrolled  and  served 
in  the  militia.  Although,  said  Van  Buren,  this  report  is 
on  the  verge  of  universal  suffrage,  it  did  not  cheapen  the  in- 
valuable right,  by  conferring  it  indiscriminately  upon  every 
one,  black  or  white,  who  would  condescend  to  accept  it.  He 
was  opposed,  he  said,  to  a  precipitate  and  unexpected  pros- 
tration of  all  qualifications,  and  looked  with  dread  upon  the 
great  increase  of  voters  in  New  York  City,  believing  that 
such  an  increase  would  render  elections  a  curse  rather  than 
a  blessing.    But  he  maintained  that  the  events  of  the  past 

*  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  34. 


302  THIRD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxv^i. 

forty  years  had  discredited  the  speculative  fears  of  Franklin, 
Hamilton,  and  Madison ;  that  venality  in  voting,  in  spite  of 
property  qualifications,  already  existed  in  grossest  forms  in 
parliamentary  elections  in  England,  and  that  property  had 
been  as  safe  in  those  American  communities  which  had  given 
universal  suffrage  as  in  the  few  which  retained  a  freehold 
qualification.  Then,  with  great  earnestness,  his  eye  resting 
upon  the  distinguished  Chancellor,  he  declared  that  when- 
ever the  principles  of  order  and  good  government  should 
yield  to  principles  of  anarchy  and  violence,  all  constitutional 
provisions  would  be  idle  and  unavailing. 

It  was  a  captivating  speech.  There  was  little  rhetoric  and 
less  feeling.  Van  Buren  took  good  care  to  show  his  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  subject,  and,  without  the  use  of  ex- 
clamations or  interrogations,  he  pointed  out  the  unwisdom 
of  following  the  constitution-makers  of  1777,  and  the  danger 
of  accepting  the  dogma  of  universal  suffrage.  The  impres- 
sion we  get  from  the  declaration  of  some  of  those  who  heard 
it,  is  that  Van  Buren  surpassed  himself  in  this  effort.  He 
seems  to  have  made  a  large  majority  of  the  convention  happy 
because  he  said  just  what  they  wanted  to  know,  and  said  it 
in  just  the  way  the^'  wanted  to  hear  it.  It  must  be  admitted, 
too,  that  the  evils  which  he  prophesied,  if  universal  suffrage 
were  given  to  New  York  City,  have  been  too  unhappily  veri- 
fied. With  the  defeat  of  Spencer's  proposition,  the  suffrage 
question  quickly  settled  itself  along  the  lines  of  the  commit- 
tee's report. 

The  judiciary  article  excited  less  debate  but  more  feeling. 
Delegates  brooded  over  the  well  known  fact  that  judges  had 
become  political  partisans,  opposed  to  increasing  their  num- 
ber to  meet  the  growing  demands  of  business,  and  anxious 
to  retain  the  extraordinary  power  given  them  under  the  Con- 
stitution of  1777.  Whenever  a  suggestion  was  made  to  re- 
tain these  judges,  therefore,  it  provoked  bitter  opposition 
and  denunciation.  A  few  men  in  the  convention  had  very 
fierce  opinions,  seasoned  with  a  kind  of  wit,  and  of  these,  the 
restless  energy  of  Erastus  Root  soon  earned  for  him  consid- 


1821]  THE  JUDICIARY  UNPOPULAE  303 

erable  notoriety.  Indeed,  it  passed  into  a  sort  of  proverb 
that  there  were  three  parties  in  the  convention — the  Repub- 
licans, the  Federalists,  and  Erastus  Root.  It  is  not  so  clear 
that  he  had  as  much  influence  as  his  long  prominence  in  pub- 
lic life  would  seem  to  entitle  him ;  but  when  he  did  happen 
to  stand  with  the  majority,  he  pleased  it  with  his  witty  vehe- 
mence more  than  Peter  R.  Livingston  did  with  his  coarse 
vituperation.  In  the  debate  on  the  judiciary,  however,  abuse 
and  invective  were  not  confined  to  Root  and  Livingston. 
Abraham  Van  Vechten  and  some  of  those  who  acted  with 
him,  employed  every  means  in  their  power  to  defeat  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  judges,  although  they  scarcely  equalled  the 
extra-tribunal  methods  of  their  adversaries. 

The  contest  opened  as  soon  as  the  chairman  of  the  judi- 
ciary committee  reported  in  favour  of  a  vice  chancellor,  from 
whom  appeals  should  be  taken  to  the  chancellor;  and  of  a 
superior  court  of  common  pleas,  having  practically  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  should  form  a  part  of 
the  Court  for  the  Correction  of  Errors.  This  meant  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  old  judges.  Immediately,  Erastus  Root  of- 
fered a  substitute,  abolishing  the  existing  courts,  and  creat- 
ing a  new  Supreme  Court,  with  a  corps  of  nisi  prius  district 
judges.  Root's  plan  also  provided  for  the  transfer  of  the 
equitable  powers  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  to  the  courts  of 
common  law.  This  was  the  extreme  view.  Although  the 
convention,  or  at  least  a  majority  of  it,  might  wish  to  get 
rid  of  the  old  Supreme  Court  judges,  it  was  plainly  unwill- 
ing to  let  go  the  Court  of  Chancery.  So  it  rejected  the  Root 
substitute  by  a  vote  of  seventy-three  to  thirty-six,  and  the 
report  of  the  judiciary  committee  by  seventy-nine  ayes  to 
thirty-three  noes.  But  the  attack  thus  daringly  begun  by 
Root,  was  steadily  maintained.  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  fig- 
ured as  a  sort  of  peacemaker,  proposed  the  retention  of  the 
Chancery  and  Supreme  Courts,  and  the  creation  of  circuit 
judges.  This  proposition  went  to  a  special  committee,  which 
presented  two  reports — one  for  the  preservation  of  the  Court 
of  Chancery  and  the  Supreme  Court,  the  other  for  the  crea- 


304  THIKD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvii. 

tion  of  a  Court  of  Chancer}-,  a  Supreme  Court,  and  courts  of 
common  pleas.  It  was  plain  that  the  second  of  these  was 
Boot's  former  substitute,  with  the  Court  of  Chancery  con- 
tinued, and,  in  support  of  it,  he  now  arraigned  the  political 
conduct  of  the  judges  with  a  severity  that  was  speedily  re- 
buked. Boot  was  radical  or  nothing.  He  hated  Spencer,  he 
despised  Van  Ness,  and  he  disliked  James  Kent  and  Jonas 
Piatt;  and  with  an  exuberance  of  apparent  anger  he  de- 
manded the  abolition  of  their  courts  and  the  creation  of 
others  in  no  wise  different. 

In  replying  to  Boot,  Yan  Buren  again  discovered  his  kind- 
liness of  heart.  The  only  question,  he  said,  was  whether  the 
convention  would  insert  an  article  in  the  Constitution  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  vacating  the  offices  of  the  present  chan- 
cellor, and  Supreme  Court  judges,  and  thus  apply  a  rule 
which  had  not  yet  been  applied  in  a  single  instance.  There 
<;ould  be  no  public  reason  for  the  measure  and  personal  feel- 
ing should  not  control.  Beferring  to  William  W.  Van  Ness, 
he  declared  that  he  could  with  truth  say  that,  throughout 
his  whole  life,  he  had  been  assailed  by  him  with  hostility — 
political,  professional  and  personal — hostility  which  had 
been  keen,  active,  and  unyielding.  "But,  sir,  am  I  on  that 
account  to  indulge  my  individual  resentment  in  the  prostra- 
tion of  my  private  and  political  adversary?  If  I  could  be 
capable  of  such  conduct  I  should  forever  despise  myself." 
In  conclusion,  he  expressed  the  hope  that  the  convention 
would  not  ruin  its  character  and  credit  by  proceeding  to 
such  extremities.  Yan  Buren  struck  hard,  and  for  the  time 
had  routed  the  judges'  opponents  by  a  vote  of  sixty-four  to 
forty-four.  But  if  the  delegates  hesitated  to  back  Root,  they 
did  not  propose  to  follow  A'an  Buren,  and  they  crushed  the 
first  report  under  the  unexpected  vote  of  eighty-six  to 
twenty-five. 

The  convention  had  now  been  in  session  over  two  months, 
and  this  most  troublesome  question  seemed  no  nearer  settle- 
ment than  on  the  opening  day.  As  in  the  suffrage  debate, 
there  were  three  factions — one  determined  to  get  rid  of  Chan- 


1821]  NEW  JUDGES  DEMANDED  305 

cell  or  Kent  and  the  five  Supreme  Court  judges;  another,  less 
numerous,  desirous  of  continuing  them  all  in  office,  and  a 
third,  probably  composed  of  a  majority  of  the  convention, 
who  wished  to  save  the  chancellor  and  lose  the  others.  Fi- 
nally, on  the  first  day  of  November,  ten  days  before  adjourn- 
ment, a  proposition  appeared  to  create  a  Supreme  Court  to 
consist  of  a  chief  justice  and  two  justices,  and  to  divide  the 
State  into  not  less  than  four  or  more  than  eight  districts,  as 
the  Legislature  should  decide,  in  each  of  which  a  district 
judge  should  be  appointed,  with  the  tenure  and  powers  of 
Supreme  Court  judges.  It  was  also  provided  that  such 
equity  powers  should  be  vested  in  the  district  judges,  in 
courts  of  common  pleas,  or  in  other  subordinate  courts,  as 
the  Legislature  might  direct,  subject  to  the  appellate  juris- 
diction of  the  chancellor.  This  was  practically  Eoot's  old 
proposition  in  another  form,  and  its  reappearance  made  it 
the  more  certain  that  a  majority  of  the  convention  had  deter- 
mined to  destroy  the  present  judges. 

Up  to  this  time,  the  members  of  the  court,  all  of  whom 
were  delegates,  either  from  motives  of  modesty,  or  with  the 
hope  that  the  many  plans  might  result  in  no  action,  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  debates  on  the  judiciary.  Now,  how- 
ever, Ambrose  Spencer,  with  doubtful  propriety,  broke  the 
silence.  His  friends  feared  the  assaults  of  Root  and  Peter 
R.  Livingston  might  drive  him  into  a  fierce  retort,  and  that 
he  would  antagonise  the  convention  if  he  did  not  also  weary 
it.  But  he  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  spoke  with  calmness 
and  excellent  taste,  saying  that  he  favoured  the  appointment 
of  circuit  judges  who  should  aid  the  Supreme  Court  in  the 
trial  of  issues  of  fact,  and  who  should  also  be  members,  ex- 
officio,  of  the  Court  of  Errors;  that  he  had  little  or  no  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  question  since  he  should  very  soon  be 
constitutionally  ineligible  to  the  office;  that  for  eighteen 
years  he  had  tried  to  discharge  his  duties  with  fidelity  and 
integrity,  and  that  he  should  leave  the  bench  conscious  of 
having  done  no  wrong  if  he  had  not  always  had  the  approval 
of  others.    He  seemed  to  capture  the  convention  for  a  mo- 


306  THIKD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvii. 

ment.  His  tones  were  mellow,  his  manner  gentle,  and  when 
he  suggested  leaving  Albany  on  the  morrow  to  resume  his 
labours  on  the  bench,  his  remarks  took  the  form  of  a  farewell 
speech,  which  added  a  touch  of  pathos.  Indeed,  the  Chief 
Justice  had  proved  so  wise  and  discreet  that  Henry  Wheaton 
thought  it  an  opportune  time  to  propose  an  amendment  to 
the  proposition  before  the  convention,  providing  that  the 
present  justices  hold  office  until  their  number  be  reduced  to 
three,  by  death,  resignation,  removal,  or  by  age  limitation. 
This  brought  the  convention  face  to  face  with  the  question 
of  retaining  the  old  judges,  stripped  of  all  other  provisions, 
and  the  result  was  awaited  with  great  interest.  It  was  Van 
Buren's  idea.  It  had  the  support,  too,  of  Nathan  Sanford,  of 
Peter  B.  Sharpe,  the  speaker  of  the  Assembly,  and  of  half 
a  score  of  prominent  Bucktails  who  hoped,  with  Van  Buren, 
that  the  convention  would  not  ruin  its  character  by  extreme 
measures  based  upon  personal  dislikes ;  but  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  was  in  no  mood  for  such  a  suggestion.  It  had 
listened  respectfully  to  the  Chief  Justice,  and  would  doubt- 
less have  cheerfully  heard  from  the  Chancellor  and  other 
members  of  the  court,  but  it  could  not  surrender  the  prin- 
ciple over  which  sixty  days  had  been  spent  in  contention. 
When,  therefore,  the  roll  was  called,  Wheaton's  amendment 
was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  sixty-six  to  thirty-nine.  Then  came 
the  call  on  the  original  proposition,  to  have  Supreme  and 
District  Courts,  which  disclosed  sixty-two  ayes  and  fifty- 
three  noes.  If  the  weakness  of  the  noes  on  the  first  vote  was 
a  disappointment,  the  strength  of  the  noes  on  the  second 
vote  was  a  surprise.  A  change  of  only  five  votes  was  needed 
to  defeat  the  proposition,  and  these  might  have  been  reduced 
to  three  had  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  who  favoured  Van  Buren's 
idea,  and  the  four  judges  who  refrained  from  voting,  felt  at 
liberty  to  put  themselves  upon  record.  It  is  a  notable  fact 
that  the  conspicuous,  able  men  of  the  convention,  with  the 
exception  of  Erastus  Root  and  Samuel  Young,  voted  to  con- 
tinue the  judges  in  office. 
Martin  Van  Buren,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  to  con- 


1821]  THE  PATKONAGE  QUESTION  307 

sider  the  question  of  filling  offices,  reported  in  favour  of  abol- 
ishing the  Council  of  Appointment,  and  of  electing  state  of- 
ficers by  the  Legislature,  justices  of  the  peace  by  the  people, 
and  military  officers,  except  generals,  by  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  militia.  Judicial  officers,  with  surrogates  and  sherififs, 
were  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor  and  confirmed  by  the 
Senate,  while  courts  were  authorised  to  select  county  clerks 
and  district  attorneys.  To  the  common  councils  of  cities 
was  committed  the  duty  of  choosing  mayors  and  clerks.  In 
his  statement.  Van  Buren  said  that  of  the  eight  thousand  two 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  military  officers  in  the  State,  all 
would  be  elected  by  the  rank  and  file,  except  seventy -eight 
generals;  and  of  the  six  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  civil  officers,  all  would  be  elected  by  the  people  or  des- 
ignated as  the  Legislature  should  direct,  except  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-three.  To  provide  for  these  five  hundred  and 
thirty-one  military  and  civil  officers,  the  committee  thought 
it  wise  to  have  the  governor  appoint  and  the  Senate  confirm 
them.  The  constitutions  recently  formed  in  Kentucky,  Louis- 
iana, Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri,  he  said,  had  such  a  pro- 
vision— similar,  in  fact,  to  that  in  the  Federal  Constitution — 
and,  although  this  method  was  open  to  objection,  the  com- 
mittee was  unable  to  devise  a  better  system. 

Aside  from  James  Tallmadge,  who  thought  the  Legislature 
should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  patronage  of  govern- 
ment, this  report  called  out  little  opposition,  so  far  as  it  pro- 
vided for  the  election  of  state  officers  by  the  Legislature, 
military  officers  by  the  militia,  and  the  appointment  of 
higher  military  and  judicial  officers  by  the  governor.  Van 
Buren  had  made  it  plain,  by  his  exhaustive  argument,  that 
constitution-makers,  seeking  the  latest  expression  of  the  peo- 
ple's will,  could  devise  no  better  plan,  and  that  experience  in 
the  newest  States  having  the  same  system,  had  developed  no 
serious  objection.  There  was  a  readiness,  also,  to  accept  the 
recommendation  allowing  the  Legislature  to  designate  the 
manner  of  selecting  the  three  thousand  six  hundred  and 
forty-three  notaries  public,  commissioners  of  deeds,  and  other 


308  THIKD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap,  xxvil 

minor  officers.  But  a  buzz  of  disapproval  ran  through  the 
convention  when  the  article  providing  for  the  election  of  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  was  reached.  It  was  evident  from  the  out- 
set, that  a  concerted  movement  was  on  foot  among  Republi- 
can leaders  to  establish,  at  the  seat  of  government,  a  cen- 
tral appointing  power  of  large  authority,  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  justices  of  the  peace  was  peculiarly  essential  to  its 
strength.  A  justice  was  of  more  importance  then  than  now. 
He  was  usually  the  strongest  character  in  his  vicinage,  and 
whether  he  followed  the  plow,  or  wore  upon  the  bench  the 
homely  working  clothes  in  which  he  tended  cattle,  he  was 
none  the  less  familiar  with  the  politics  of  every  suitor  in  his 
court.  In  the  absence  of  higher  courts,  neighbours  were  com- 
pelled to  go  before  him,  and  in  settling  their  troubles,  it  was 
usually  understood  that  he  held  the  scales  of  justice  without 
being  blindfolded. 

Van  Buren  did  not  conceal  his  hostility  to  the  election  of 
these  justices.  If  he  had  developed  radical  tendencies  in  the 
suffrage  debate,  he  now  exhibited  equally  strong  conservative 
proclivities  in  limiting  the  power  of  the  voter.  His  vigorous 
protests  in  the  committee-room  against  the  election  of  surro- 
gates, sheriffs  and  county  clerks  had  defeated  that  proposi- 
tion, and  in  referring  to  the  section  of  the  report  making  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  elective,  he  said  it  had  been  a  source  of 
sincere  regret  that  the  committee  overruled  him.  But  a  major- 
ity of  the  committee,  he  continued,  in  his  smooth  and  adroit 
manner,  had  no  strong  personal  predilections  on  the  question 
of  the  election  of  sheriffs  and  surrogates,  and  if,  on  a  fair 
and  deliberate  examination,  it  should  be  thought  better  to 
have  these  officials  elected  by  the  people,  they  would  cheer- 
fully acquiesce  in  that  decision.  This  was  the  quintessence 
of  diplomacy.  He  knew  that  Erastus  Root  and  Samuel 
Young  insisted  upon  having  these  officers  elected,  and,  to  se- 
cure their  opposition  to  the  election  of  justices  of  the  peace, 
he  indicated  a  willingness  to  be  convinced  as  to  the  expedi- 
ency of  electing  sheriffs  and  surrogates. 

To  bring  the  question  of  electing  or  appointing  justices  of 


1821]  VAN  BUREN'S  WILY  SCHEME  30^ 

the  peace  squarely  before  the  convention,  Van  Buren,  at  a 
later  day,  introduced  a  resolution  providing  that  the  board 
of  supervisors  in  every  county  should,  at  such  time  as  the 
Legislature  directed,  recommend  to  the  governor  a  list  of 
persons  equal  in  number  to  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  such 
county;  that  the  respective  courts  of  common  pleas  of  the 
several  counties  should  also  recommend  a  like  number,  and 
from  the  lists  so  recommended  the  governor  should  appoint. 
In  the  event  of  vacancies,  like  recommendations  were  to  be 
made.  The  governor  was  also  authorised  to  remove  a  justice 
upon  the  application  in  writing  of  the  body  recommending 
his  appointment.  This  scheme  was  not  very  magnificent.  It 
put  the  responsibility  of  selection  neither  upon  supervisors, 
courts,  nor  governor,  although  each  one  must  act  indepen- 
dently of  the  other,  but  it  gave  the  governor  a  double  chance 
of  appointing  men  of  his  own  political  faith.  This  was  Van 
Buren's  purpose.  He  believed  in  a  central  appointing  power, 
which  the  Albany  Regency  might  control,  and,  that  such 
power  should  not  be  impotent,  these  minor  and  many  magis- 
trates, thickly  distributed  throughout  the  State,  with  a  juris- 
diction broad  enough  to  influence  their  neighbourhoods,  be- 
came of  the  greatest  importance.  To  secure  their  appoint- 
ment, therefore.  Van  Buren  was  ready  to  sacrifice  the  ap- 
pointment of  sheriffs,  with  their  vast  army  of  deputies. 

Van  Buren's  scheme  was  ably  resisted.  Rufus  King,  whO' 
was  counted  a  Bucktail  but  until  now  had  taken  little  part 
in  debate,  spoke  against  it  with  all  the  sincere  emotion  of 
one  whose  mind  and  heart  alike  were  filled  with  the  cause 
for  which  he  pleaded.  He  thought  justices  should  be  elected. 
Each  locality  knew  the  men  in  whom  it  could  trust  to  settle 
its  disputes,  and  farmers  as  well  as  townspeople  should  be 
allowed  to  select  the  arbitrator  of  all  their  petty  quarrels  and 
disagreements.  It  was  the  very  essence  of  home  rule.  In 
vigorous  English  Ambrose  Spencer,  William  W.  Van  Ness, 
and  Jacob  R.  Van  Rensselaer  supported  the  Senator,  while 
Ogden  Edwards  of  New  York  City,  an  able  representative 
of  Tammany,  burning  with  a  sense  of  injustice,  violently  as- 


310  THIRD  STATE  CONSTITUTION     [Chap.  xx^^I. 

sailed  the  proposed  plan.  ''The  unanimous  vote  of  this  con- 
vention/' he  said,  ''had  shown  that  the  Council  of  Appoint- 
ment was  an  evil.  A  unanimous  sentence  of  condemnation 
has  been  passed  upon  it,  and  I  had  not  expected  so  soon  to 
find  a  proposition  for  its  revival." 

Probably  no  stranger  scene  was  ever  witnessed  in  a  parlia- 
mentary body  than  Erastus  Root  and  Samuel  Young,  two 
radical  legislators,  advocates  of  universal  suffrage,  and  just 
now  especially  conspicuous  because  of  their  successful  sup- 
port of  the  election  of  sheriffs  and  county  clerks,  arguing 
with  zeal  and  ability  for  the  appointment  of  justices  of  the 
peace.  It  seemed  like  a  travesty,  since  there  was  not  an  argu- 
ment in  favour  of  electing  sheriffs  that  did  not  apply  with 
added  force  to  the  election  of  justices.  The  convention  stood 
aghast  at  such  effrontery.  It  is  impossible  to  read,  without 
regret,  of  the  voluntary  stultification  of  these  orators,  plead- 
ing piteously  for  the  appointment  of  justices  of  the  peace 
while  declaiming  with  passionate  righteousness  against  the 
appointment  of  sheriffs.  With  acidulated  satire,  Van  Ness, 
enrapturing  his  hearers  by  his  brilliancy,  held  them  up  to 
public  ridicule  if  not  to  public  detestation.  But  Van  Buren's 
bungling  proposition,  though  once  rejected  by  a  vote  of  fifty- 
nine  to  fifty-six,  was  in  the  end  substantially  adopted,  and 
it  remained  a  part  of  the  amended  constitution  until  the  peo- 
ple, very  soon  satisfied  of  its  iniquity,  ripped  it  out  of  the 
organic  law  with  the  same  unanimity  that  their  representa- 
tives now  abolished  the  Councils  of  Appointment  and  of  Re- 
vision. Could  Van  Buren  have  had  his  way,  the  Council  of 
Appointment  would  have  been  changed  only  in  name. 

The  work  of  the  convention  concluded,  a  motion  for  the 
passage  of  the  Constitution  as  a  whole  developed  only  eight 
votes  in  the  negative,  though  twenty-four  members,  includ- 
ing the  eight  delegates  from  Albany  and  Columbia  Counties, 
four  from  Montgomery,  Jonas  Piatt  of  Oneida,  and  Peter  A. 
Jay  of  Westchester,  because  it  extended  and  cheapened  suf- 
frage, refused  to  sign  it.  Other  objections  were  urged. 
Ezekiel  Bacon  of  Utica,  explaining    his    affirmative    vote, 


1821]  WHAT  THE   CONSTITUTION  DID  311 

thought  it  worse  than  the  existing  Constitution  of  1777 ;  yet 
he  approved  it  because  the  provision  for  amendment  afforded 
the  people  a  means  of  correcting  defects  with  reasonable  fa- 
cility, without  resorting  to  the  difficult  and  dangerous  ex- 
periment of  a  formal  convention. 

The  Constitution,  however,  in  spite  of  the  opposition,  was 
overwhelmingly  ratified.  The  vote  for  it  was  74,732 ;  against 
it  41,043.  And  it  proved  better  than  even  its  sponsors  proph- 
esied. It  abolished  the  Councils  of  Appointment  and  of  Re- 
vision; it  abolished  the  power  of  the  governor  to  prorogue 
the  Legislature;  it  abolished  the  property  qualification  of  the 
white  voter;  it  extended  the  elective  franchise;  it  made  a 
large  number  of  officers  elective ;  it  modified  the  management 
of  the  canals  and  created  a  canal  board;  it  continued  the 
Court  of  Errors  and  Impeachments ;  it  reorganised  the  judi- 
cial department,  making  all  judges,  surrogates,  and  record- 
ers appointive  by  the  governor,  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate;  it  made  state  officers,  formerly  appointed  by 
the  Council,  elective  by  joint  ballot  of  the  Senate  and  As- 
sembly; and  it  gave  the  power  of  veto  exclusively  to  the  gov- 
ernor, requiring  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Legislature  to  over- 
come it.  No  doubt  it  had  radical  defects,  but  with  the  help 
of  a  few  amendments  it  lived  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  SECOND  FALL  OF  CLINTON 

1822 

The  new  Constitution  changed  the  date  of  elections 
from  April  to  November,  and  reduced  the  gubernatorial 
term  from  three  years  to  two,  thus  ending  Governor  Clin- 
ton's administration  on  January  1,  1823.  As  the  time  ap- 
proached for  nominating  his  successor,  it  was  obvious  that 
the  Bucktails,  having  reduced  party  discipline  to  a  science 
and  launched  the  Albany  Kegency  upon  its  long  career  of 
party  domination,  were  certain  to  control  the  election.  In- 
deed, so  strong  had  the  party  become  that  a  nomination  for 
senator  or  assemblyman  was  equivalent  to  an  election,  and 
the  defeat  of  John  W.  Taylor  of  Saratoga  for  speaker  of  the 
Seventeenth  Congress  showed  that  its  power  extended  to  the 
capital  of  the  nation.  Taylor's  ability  and  splendid  leader- 
ship, in  the  historic  contest  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  had 
made  him  speaker  during  the  second  session  of  the  Sixteenth 
Congi'ess;  but  Bucktail  resentment  of  his  friendly  attitude 
toward  Clinton,  in  1820,  changed  a  sufficient  number  of  his 
New  York  colleagues  to  deprive  him  of  re-election.  It  was 
not  until  the  Nineteenth  Congress,  after  the  power  of  the  Al- 
bany Regency  had  been  temporarily  broken  by  the  election 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  to  the  Presidency,  that  Taylor  finally 
received  the  reward  to  which  he  was  so  richly  entitled. 

At  this  moment  of  the  Regency's  domination,  Joseph  C. 
Yates  showed  himself  the  coming  man.  Though  it  was  the 
desire  of  his  party  that  he  take  the  nomination  for  governor 
in  1820,  the  cautious,  modest  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
had  discreetly  decided  not  to  sacrifice  himself  in  the  year  of 
DeWitt  Clinton's  greatest  strength.    Conscious  of  his  own 

313 


J 


1822]  JOSEPH  C.  YATES  313 

popularity  with  the  people,  he  was  prepared  to  wait.  But 
he  had  not  to  wait  long.  During  the  last  two  years  of  Clin- 
ton's administration,  Yates  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Council  of  Revision,  by  voting  for  the  bill  creating  a  consti- 
tutional convention — a  vote  which  was  applauded  by  Van 
Buren,  although  overcome  by  Clinton;  and  when  the  time 
approached  for  the  selection  of  another  gubernatorial  candi- 
date, he  rightly  saw  that  his  hour  was  come.  Yates  was  not 
cut  out  for  the  part  which  a  strange  combination  of  circum- 
stances was  to  allow  him  to  play.  He  was  a  man  of  respect- 
able character,  but  without  remarkable  capacity  of  any  kind. 
He  had  a  charming  personality.  He  was  modest  and  mild  in 
his  deportment,  and  richly  gifted  with  discretion,  caution, 
and  prudence.  Vindictiveness  formed  no  part  of  his  disposi- 
tion. The  peculiar  character  of  his  intellect  made  him  a  good 
Supreme  Court  judge;  but  he  lacked  the  intellectual  en- 
ergy and  courage  for  an  executive,  who  must  thoroughly 
understand  the  means  of  getting  and  retaining  public 
support. 

A  majority  of  the  leading  politicians  of  the  party,  appre- 
ciating Yates'  mental  deficiencies,  ranged  themselves  on  the 
side  of  Samuel  Young,  who  enjoj-ed  playing  a  conspicuous 
part  and  liked  attacking  somebody.  Young  was  not  merely 
a  debater  of  apparently  inexhaustible  resource,  but  a  master 
in  the  use  of  parliamentary  tactics  and  political  craft.  His 
speeches,  or  such  reports  of  them  as  exist,  are  full  of  striking 
passages  and  impressive  phrases;  and,  as  an  orator,  full, 
round  and  joyous,  with  singularly  graceful  and  charming 
manners,  he  was  then  without  a  rival  in  his  party.  But  his 
ultra-radicalism  and  illiberal,  often  rude,  treatment  of  oppo- 
nents prevented  him  from  obtaining  all  the  influence  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  fairly  due  to  his  talents  and  his 
political  and  personal  integrity. 

There  were,  also,  other  aspirants.  Daniel  D.  Tompkins, 
preferring  governor  to  Vice  President,  was  willing  to  be 
called ;  and  Peter  B.  Porter,  Erastus  Root,  and  Nathan  San- 
ford,  figured  among  those  whose  names  were  canvassed.    The 


314  THE  SECOND  FAI.L  OF  CLINTON     [Cuap.  xxvm. 

contest,  however,  soon  settled  down  between  Yates  and  Young, 
with  the  chances  decidedly  in  favour  of  the  former.  People 
admired  Young  and  were  proud  of  him — they  thoroughly 
liked  Yates  and  trusted  him.  If  Young  had  possessed  the 
kindly,  sympathetic  disposition  of  Yates,  with  a  tithe  of  his 
discretion,  he  would  have  rivalled  Martin  Van  Buren  in  influ- 
ence and  popularity,  and  become  a  successful  candidate  for 
any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  voters ;  but,  with  all  his  splendid 
genius  for  debate  and  eloquent  speaking,  he  was  neither  a 
patient  leader  nor  a  popular  one.  When  the  Republican 
members  of  the  Legislature  got  into  caucus,  therefore,  Jo- 
seph C.  Yates  had  a  pronounced  majority,  as  had  Erastus 
Root  for  lieutenant-governor. 

Young's  defeat  for  the  nomination  left  bitter  enmity.  A 
reconciliation  did,  indeed,  take  place  between  him  and  Yates, 
but  it  was  as  formal  and  superficial  as  that  of  the  two  de- 
mons described  in  Le  Sage's  story.  "They  brought  us  to- 
gether," says  Asmodeus;  ''they  reconciled  us.  We  shook 
hands  and  became  mortal  enemies."  Young  and  Yates  were 
reconciled ;  but  from  the  moment  of  Yates'  nomination,  until, 
chagrined  and  disappointed,  he  was  forced  into  retirement 
after  two  years  of  humiliating  obedience  to  the  Regency, 
Samuel  Young  spared  no  effort  to  render  his  late  opponent 
unpopular. 

Although  Clinton's  canal  policy,  upon  the  success  of  which 
he  had  staked  his  all,  was  signally  vindicating  itself  in  rapid- 
ity of  construction,  and  the  very  moderate  estimate  of  cost, 
his  friends  did  not  hesitate  to  advise  him  that  his  re-election 
to  the  governorship  was  impossible.  It  was  a  cold  proposi- 
tion for  a  man  to  face  who  had  inaugurated  a  system  of  im- 
provement which  would  confer  prosperity  and  wealth  upon 
the  people,  and  enrich  and  elevate  the  State.  For  a  time, 
like  a  caged  tiger,  he  bit  at  the  bars  that  seemed  to  limit  his 
ambition.  But  his  friends  were  right.  Through  his  manage- 
ment, or  want  of  management,  the  Clintonians  had  ceased 
to  exist  as  an  organisation,  and  his  supporting  Federalists, 
as  evidenced  by  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  constitu- 


1822]  AN  INSPIKED   PROPHET  315 

tional  convention  in  1821,  had  passed  into  a  hopeless  minor- 
ity. Y^fovernor  Clinton,  though  governor,"  said  Thurlow 
Weed,  ''was  much  in  the  condition  of  a  pastor  without  a  con- 
gregation.'' It  was  striking  proof  of  the  absence  of  tact  and 
that  address  which,  in  a  popular  government,  is  necessary 
for  one  to  possess  who  expects  to  succeed  in  public  life.  Clin- 
ton had  now  been  governor  for  five  consecutive  years.  His 
motives  had  undoubtedly  been  pure  and  patriotic,  and  he  had 
within  his  control  the  means  of  a  great  office  to  influence  peo- 
ple in  his  favour;  yet  a  cold  exterior,  an  arrogant  manner, 
and  a  disposition  to  rule  or  ruin,  had  cooled  his  friends  and 
driven  away  the  people  until  opponents  took  little  heed  of 
his  existence. 

No  doubt  Clinton  had  good  reason  to  know  that  the  states- 
men of  that  time  were  not  exactly  what  they  professed  to  be. 
He  was  well  aware  that  many  of  them,  like  John  Wood- 
worth,  Ambrose  Spencer,  and  James  Tallmadge,  had  played 
fast  and  loose  as  the  chances  of  Bucktail  and  Clintonian  had 
gone  up  or  gone  down ;  and,  although  he  gracefully  declined 
to  become  a  candidate  for  re-election,  when  convinced  of  the 
utter  hopelessness  of  such  a  race,  his  brain  was  no  less  active 
in  the  conception  of  plans  which  should  again  return  him  to 
power.  As  early  as  October,  1822,  he  wrote  Post:  ''The 
odium  attached  to  the  name  of  Federalist  has  been  a  mill- 
stone round  the  neck  of  true  policy.  It  is  now  almost  univer- 
sally dropped  in  this  district,  in  the  district  of  which  Oneida 
County  is  part,  and  in  the  Herkimer  County  meeting.  I  hail 
this  as  an  auspicious  event.  Names  in  politics  as  well  as  sci- 
ence are  matters  of  substance,  and  a  bad  name  in  public  is 
as  injurious  to  success  as  a  bad  name  in  private  life.  The 
inferences  I  draw  from  the  signs  of  the  times  are :  First,  the 
ascendancy  of  our  party  from  the  collisions  of  parties.  In 
proportion  as  they  quarrel  with  each  other  they  will  draw 
closer  to  us.  The  last  hate  being  the  most  violent  will  su- 
persede the  former  antipathy.  Second,  the  old  names  as  well 
as  the  old  lines  of  party  will  be  abolished.  Third,  nomina- 
tions by  caucuses  will    be  exploded.     Fourth,  Yates,    Van 


316  THE  SECOND  FALL  OF  CLINTON     [Chap.  xxvm. 

Buten,  etc.,  will  go  down  like  the  stick  of  a  rocket.  Our 
friends  are  up  and  doing  in  Ulster." 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  admiration  for  the  indomitable 
courage  and  the  inexhaustible  animal  spirits  which  no  defeat 
could  reduce  to  prostration.  Furthermore,  Clinton  had  writ- 
ten with  the  inspiration  of  a  prophet.  Not  only  were  the 
old  names  and  the  old  party  lines  soon  to  vanish,  but  the 
last  legislative  caucus  ever  to  be  held  in  the  State,  would 
be  called  in  less  than  two  years.  Within  the  same  period 
Yates  was  to  fall  like  the  stick  of  a  rocket,  and  Van  Buren 
to  suffer  his  first  defeat. 

In  the  absence  of  a  Clintonian  or  Federalist  opponent, 
Solomon  Southwick  announced  himself  as  an  independent 
candidate.  His  was  a  strange  story.  He  had  many  of  the 
noblest  qualities  and  some  of  the  wildest  fancies,  growing 
out  of  an  extravagant  imagination  that  seemed  to  control  his 
mind.  Among  other  things,  he  opened  an  office  for  the  sale 
of  lottery  tickets,  reserving  numbers  for  himself  which  had 
been  indicated  in  dreams  or  by  fortune-tellers,  with  whom 
he  was  in  frequent  consultation.  Writing  of  his  disposition 
to  hope  for  aid  from  the  miraculous  interposition  of  some  in- 
visible power,  Hammond  says :  "He  was  in  daily  expectation 
that  the  next  mail  would  bring  him  news  that  he  had  drawn 
the  highest  prize  in  the  lottery;  and  I  have  known  him  to 
borrow  money  of  a  friend  under  a  solemn  pledge  of  his  honour 
for  its  repayment  in  ten  days,  and  have  afterward  ascer- 
tained that  his  sole  expectation  of  redeeming  his  pledge  de- 
pended on  his  drawing  a  prize  when  the  next  lottery  in 
which  he  was  interested  should  be  drawn."^ 

Southwick  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  genius,  as  his  work 
on  the  Albany  Eegisfer,  the  Plougliljoy,  and  the  Christian 
Visitant  clearly  indicates;  but  erroneous  judgment  and  de- 
fective impulses  resulted  in  misfortunes  which  finally  dark- 
ended  and  closed  his  life  in  adversity  if  not  in  poverty.  As  a 
young  man  he  had  been  repeatedly  elected  clerk  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  had  afterward  served  as  sheriff,  as  state  printer, 
^  Jabez  D,  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  101. 


1822]  THUELOW  WEED  317 

and,  finally,  as  postmaster.  In  the  meantime,  he  became  the 
first  president  of  the  Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  Bank,  making 
money  easily  and  rapidly,  living  extravagantly,  giving  gener- 
ously, and  acquiring  great  political  influence.  But  his  trial 
for  bribery,  of  which  vnention  has  been  made,  his  removal  as 
state  printer,  and  his  defalcation  as  postmaster,  prostrated 
him  financially  and  politically.  In  the  hope  of  retrieving  his 
fortunes  he  embarked  in  real  estate  speculation,  thus  com- 
pleting his  ruin  and  making  him  still  more  visionary  and 
fantastic.  Nevertheless,  he  struggled  on  with  industry  and 
courage  for  more  than  twenty  years,  occasionally  coming  into 
public  or  political  notice  as  a  writer  of  caustic  letters,  or  as 
a  candidate  for  oflice. 

In  1822,  the  wild  fancy  possessed  Southwick  of  becoming 
governor,  and  to  preface  the  way  for  his  visionary  scheme 
he  applied  to  a  bright  young  journalist,  the  editor  of  the 
Manlius  Republican,  to  canvass  the  western  and  southwest- 
ern counties  of  the  State.  Thurlow  Weed  at  this  time  was 
twenty-six  years  old.  He  had  worked  on  a  farm,  he  had 
blown  a  blacksmith's  bellows,  he  had  shipped  as  a  cabin-boy, 
he  had  done  chores  at  a  tavern,  he  had  served  as  a  soldier, 
and  he  had  learned  the  printer's  trade.  For  twenty  years 
he  lived  a  life  of  poverty,  yet  of  tireless  industry,  with  a  sim- 
plicity as  amazing  as  his  genius.  The  only  thing  of  which 
he  got  nothing  was  schooling.  His  family  was  an  old  Con- 
necticut one,  which  had  come  down  in  the  world.  Every- 
thing went  wrong  with  his  father.  He  was  hard-working, 
kind-hearted,  and  strictly  honest,  but  nothing  succeeded. 
With  the  hope  of  "bettering  his  condition,"  he  moved  five 
times  in  ten  years,  getting  so  desperately  poor  at  last  that 
a  borrowed  two-horse  sleigh  carried  all  his  wordly  goods,  in- 
cluding a  wife  and  five  children.  Joel  Weed  was,  perhaps, 
as  unfortunate  a  man  as  ever  brought  an  illustrious  son  into 
the  world.  He  was  neither  shiftless  nor  worthless,  but  what 
others  did  he  could  not  do.  Hei  never  took  up  land  for  him- 
self because  he  had  nothing  to  begin  with.  A  neighbour  who 
began  with  an  axe  and  a  hoe,  entered  fifty  acres,  and  got  rich. 


318  THE  SECOND  FALL  OF  CLINTON     [Chap,  xxvin. 

If  Joel  Weed  lived  as  a  beggar,  Thurlow  thought  as  a  king. 
He  revelled  in  the  mountains  and  streams  interspersed  along 
the  routes  of  the  family's  frequent  movings ;  his  taste  for  ad- 
venture made  the  sloop's  cabin  a  home,  and  his  love  for  read- 
ing turned  the  blacksmith  shop  and  printing  office  into  a 
schoolroom.  As  he  read  he  forgot  that  he  was  poor,  forgot 
that  he  was  ragged,  forgot  that  he  was  hungry.  In  his  auto- 
biography he  tells  of  walking  bare-footed  six  miles  through 
the  snow  to  borrow  a  history  of  the  French  Revolution,  and 
of  reading  it  at  night  in  the  blaze  of  a  pitch-pine  knot.  Men 
found  him  lovable.  He  was  large  and  awkward ;  but  even  as 
a  boy  there  was  a  charm  of  manner,  a  tender,  sympathetic 
nature,  a  sweet,  sparkling  humour,  and  a  nobility  of  charac- 
ter that  irresistibly  drew  people  to  him.  In  many  respects 
his  boyhood  resembled  Lincoln's,  and,  though  he  lived  in 
some  of  the  evil  days  of  the  last  century,  his  j^outh,  like  Lin- 
coln's, escaped  pollution.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  as  an  ap- 
prentice in  a  weekly  newspaper  office  at  Onondaga  Hollow, 
he  read  and  filed  every  exchange  paper,  familiarising  himself 
with  discussions  in  Congress,  and  imbibing  a  deadly  hatred 
of  England  because  of  Indian  barbarities  excited  by  British 
agents,  and  cruelties  to  American  seamen  impressed  by  Brit- 
ish officers.  With  the  true  instinct  of  his  fine  nature,  he 
made  his  friends  and  companions  among  the  wisest  and 
highest  of  his  time,  although  he  loved  all  company  that  was 
not  vicious  and  depraved.  He  knew  Gerrit  Smith  in  1814; 
a  few  months'  stay,  as  a  journeyman  printer,  at  Auburn, 
forged  a  lasting  friendship  with  Elijah  Miller,  the  father-in- 
law  of  William  H.  Seward,  and  with  Enos  T.  Throop,  after- 
ward governor.  His  intimacy  with  Gorham  A.  Worth,  a 
financier  of  decided  literary  tastes,  and  for  thirty  j^ears 
president  of  the  New  York  City  Bank,  began  in  Albany  in 
1816.  Thus,  in  whatever  town  he  worked  or  settled,  the 
prominent  men  and  those  to  grow  into  prominence  became 
his  intimates.  He  had  women  friends,  too,  as  wisely  chosen 
as  the  men,  but  Catherine  Ostrander  was  the  star  of  his  life. 
He  tells  a  touching  little  story  of  this  Cooperstown  maiden. 


1822]  SOUTHWICK  EMPLOYS  WEED  31& 

Their  engagement  occurred  in  his  seventeenth  year,  but  her 
parents,  objecting  to  the  roving,  unsettled  youth,  he  proposed 
three  years  of  absolute  separation,  and  if  then  no  change 
had  come  to  her  affections  she  should  write  and  tell  him  so. 
In  his  hours  of  poverty,  he  was  cheered  by  the  thought  of  her, 
and  when,  at  last,  her  letter  came,  he  hastened  to  claim  her 
as  his  bride.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony,  he  had 
money  enough  only  to  take  them  back  to  Albany. 

Weed  began  the  publication  of  the  Manlius  Repuhlican  in 
June,  1821.  For  three  years  previously  the  Agriculturist^ 
published  at  Norwich,  in  Chenango  County,  had  given  him 
proprietorship,  some  reputation,  jjnd  less  money;  but  it  had 
also  classified  him  politically.  \  He  had  never  been  a  Feder- 
alist, nor  could  he  be  called  a  Clintonian,  although  his  belief 
in  canal  improvement  led  him  to  the  support  of  Governor 
Clinton  and  earned  for  him  the  opposition  of  the  Bucktails. 
Like  his  father  he  worked  without  success,  and  then  moved 
on  to  Albany;  but  he  left  behind  him  a  coterie  of  distin- 
guished Chenango  friends  who  were  ever  after  to  follow  his 
leadership.  At  Albany,  he  began  to  earn  eighteen  dollars  a 
week  as  a  journeyman  printer  on  the  Argus.  The  Bucktails 
forced  him  out  and  he  went  on  to  Manlius,  resurrecting 
the  Times,  an  old  Federalist  paper,  which  he  called  the 
Repuhlican. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Southwick  sought  him.  "He  was 
insanely  anxious  to  be  governor,"  says  Weed,  "and  all  the 
more  insane  because  of  its  impossibility.  He  had  been  edit- 
ing with  great  industry  and  ability  the  Ploughhop  and  the 
Christian  Visitant,  and  beguiled  himself  with  a  confident 
belief  that  farmers  and  Christians,  irrespective  of  party, 
would  sustain  him.  He  provided  me  with  a  horse  and  wagon, 
and  gave  me  a  list  of  the  names  of  gentlemen  on  whom  I 
was  to  call,  but  I  soon  discovered  that  my  friend's  hopes  and 
chances  were  not  worth  even  the  services  of  a  horse  that 
was  dragging  me  through  the  mud.  Years  afterward  I 
learned  that  in  politics,  as  almost  in  everything  else,  Mr. 
Southwick  was  blinded  by  his  enthusiasm  and  credulity."^ 
"  A.utoliography  of  Thnrlow  Weed,  p.  86. 


320  THE  SECOND  FALL  OF  CLINTON     [Chap.  xxvm. 

But  Southwick  was  not  the  only  blinded  one  in  1822.  On 
the  10th  of  January,  Governor  Clinton  wrote  Henry  Post 
"that  Yates  and  Van  Buren  are  both  prostrate,  and  the 
latter  particularly  so."^  Later  in  the  year,  on  August  21,  he 
declared :  "Yates  is  unpopular,  and  Southwick  will  beat  him 
in  this  city  and  in  Schenectady."*  In  the  next  month,  Sep- 
tember 21,  he  is  even  more  outspoken.  "Yates  is  despised  and 
talked  against  openly.  Savage  and  Skinner  talk  jilainly 
against  him,  and  he  is  the  subject  of  commonplace  ridicule."^ 
Clinton  was  the  last  person  to  abandon  hope  of  Yates'  de- 
feat ;  and  yet  Yates'  election  could,  without  exaggeration,  be 
declared  practically  unanimous.®  Republican  legislative  can- 
didates fared  equally  well.  Clintonians  and  Federalists  were 
entirely  without  representation  in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  As- 
sembly their  number  was  insuflScient  to  make  their  presence 
appreciable. 

'  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Yol.  50,  p.  507. 

*imd.,  p.  565.  ^lUd.,  p.  565. 

°  Southwick  received  2910  out  of  a  total  of  131,403  votes  cast.— 
Civil  List,  State  of  New  York   (1887),  p.  166. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE 

1823-1824 

The  election  in  the  fall  of  1822  was  one  of  those  sweeping, 
crushing  victories  that  precede  a  radical  change;  and  the 
confidence  with  which  the  victors  used  their  power  hurried 
on  the  revolution  prophesied  in  Clinton's  clever  letter  to 
Post.  The  blow  did  not,  indeed,  come  at  once.  The  legisla- 
tors, meeting  in  January,  1823,  proceeded  cautiously,  agree- 
ing in  caucus  upon  the  state  officers  whom  the  Legislature, 
under  the  amended  Constitution,  must  now  elect.  John  Van 
Ness  Yates,  the  Governor's  nephew,  was  made  secretary  of 
state;  William  L.  Marcy,  comptroller;  Simeon  DeWitt,  sur- 
veyor-general, and  Alexander  M.  Muir,  commissary-general. 
The  caucus  hesitated  to  nominate  DeWitt  because  he  was  a 
Clintonian ;  but  forty  years  of  honourable,  efficient,  quiet  ser- 
vice finally  appealed  to  a  Republican  Legislature  with  all  the 
force  that  it  had  formerly  appealed  to  the  Skinner  Council. 
There  was  more  of  a  contest  over  the  comptrollership.  James 
Tallmadge  suddenly  blossomed  into  a  rival  candidate.  Tall- 
madge,  like  John  W.  Taylor,  won  his  spurs  as  a  leader  of  the 
opposition  to  the  Missouri  Compromise.  He  had  been  an  ar- 
dent supporter  of  Clinton  until  the  latter  preferred  Thomas 
J.  Oakley  as  attorney-general;  then  he  swung  into  commu- 
nion with  the  Bucktails.  He  was  impulsively  ambitious, 
sensitive  to  opposition,  fearless  in  action,  and  such  an  invet- 
erate hater  that  he  could  not  always  act  along  lines  leading 
to  his  own  preferment. 

Under  the  new  Constitution,  county  judges,  surrogates, 
and  notaries  public  were  selected  from  the  dominant  party 
with  more  jealous  care  than  by  the  old  Council ;  and  if  Yates 

321 


322  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE    [Chap.  xxix. 

failed  to  observe  the  edict  of  the  Regency,  the  Senate  failed 
to  confirm  his  appointees.  Hammond,  the  historian,  gives 
an  instance  of  its  refusal  to  confirm  the  reappoint- 
ment of  a  bank  cashier  as  a  notary  public  be- 
cause of  his  politics.  But  the  really  absorbing  ques- 
tion was  the  appointment  of  Supreme  Court  judges.  Though 
there  was  no  objection  to  Nathan  Sanford  for  chancellor, 
since  he  would  not  take  office  until  the  retirement  of  James 
Kent,  in  August,  by  reason  of  age  limitation,  the  spirit 
shown  in  the  constitutional  convention,  toward  the  old  Su- 
preme Court  judges,  pervaded  the  Senate.  The  Governor, 
who  had  served  with  Ambrose  Spencer  since  1808,  and  with 
Piatt  and  Woodworth  from  the  time  of  their  elevation  to 
the  court,  was  prompted,  perhaps  through  his  kindly  inter- 
est in  their  welfare,  to  nominate  them  for  reappointment,  but 
the  Senate  rejected  them  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote.  If 
the  Governor  had  now  let  the  matter  rest,  he  would  doubtless 
have  escaped  the  serious  charge  of  insincerity.  The  next  day, 
however,  without  giving  the  rejected  men  opportunity  to  se- 
cure a  rehearing,  he  nominated  John  Savage,  Jacob  Suther- 
land, and  Samuel  R.  Betts.  The  suddenness  of  these  second 
nominations  seemed  to  indicate  a  greater  desire  to  continue 
cordial  relations  with  the  Senate  than  to  help  his  former  as- 
sociates. Whatever  the  cause,  though,  Ambrose  Spencer 
never  forgave  him ;  nor  did  he  outlive  Samuel  Young's  criti- 
cism of  playing  politics  at  the  expense  of  his  old  comrades 
upon  the  bench. 

With  the  exception  of  Ambrose  Spencer,  who  was  destined 
to  be  remembered  for  a  time  by  friends  and  enemies,  the  old 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  may  now  be  said  to  drop  out 
of  state  history.  Spencer  lived  twenty-five  years  longer, 
until  1848,  serving  one  term  in  Congress,  one  term  as  mayor 
of  Albany,  and  finally  rounding  out  his  long  life  of  eighty- 
three  years  as  president  of  the  national  Whig  convention  at 
Baltimore  in  1844 ;  but  his  political  and  public  activity,  as  a 
factor  to  be  reckoned  with,  ceased  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight. 
The  close  of  his  life  was  spent  in  happy  quietude  among  his 


1823]  LAST   OF   THE   OLD   JUDGES  323 

books,  and  in  the  midst  of  new-found  friends  in  the  church, 
with  which  he  united  some  six  or  eight  years  before  his 
death.  Jonas  Piatt  returned  to  Clinton  County,  and,  for  a 
time,  practised  his  profession  with  great  acceptance  as  an 
advocate ;  but  as  a  master-politician  he,  like  Spencer,  was  out 
of  employment  forever.  At  last,  he,  too,  retired  to  a  farm, 
and  with  composure  awaited  the  end  that  came  in  1834. 
William  W.  Van  Ness  was  destined  to  go  earlier.  Not  seek- 
ing reappointment  to  the  bench,  he  settled  in  New  York,  with 
apparently  forty  years  of  life  before  him,  his  genius  in  all 
the  glow  of  its  maturity  marking  him  for  greater  political 
success  than  he  had  yet  achieved ;  yet,  within  a  year,  on  Feb- 
ruary 27,  1823,  death  found  him  while  he  sought  health  in  a 
Southern  State.  He  was  only  forty-seven  years  old  at  the 
time.  Disease  and  not  age  had  thrown  him.  Born  in  1776, 
he  had  won  for  himself  the  proudest  honours  of  the  law,  and 
written  his  name  high  up  on  the  roll  of  New  York  statesmen. 
Governor  Yates  had  thus  far  travelled  a  difficult  and  dusty 
road.  In  the  duty  of  organising  the  government,  which, 
under  the  new  Constitution  fell  to  him,  and  in  making  ap- 
pointments, he  received  the  censure  and  was  burdened  with 
the  resentment  of  the  mortified  and  disappointed.  His  oppo- 
nents, with  the  hearty  and  poorly  concealed  approval  of 
Young's  friends,  made  it  their  business  to  create  a  public 
opinion  against  him.  They  assailed  him  at  all  points  with 
ridicule,  with  satire,  with  vituperation,  and  with  personal 
abuse.  They  seemed  to  lie  in  wait  to  find  occasion  for  at- 
tacking him,  exaggerating  his  weaknesses  and  minimising  his 
strength.  But  the  blunder  that  broke  his  heart,  and  sent 
him  into  unexpected  and  sudden  retirement,  was  his  opposi- 
tion to  a  change  in  the  law  providing  for  the  choice  of  presi- 
dential electors  by  the  people.  The  demand  for  such  a 
measure  grew  out  of  a  divided  sentiment  between  William 
H.  Crawford,  then  secretary  of  the  treasury,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  secretary  of  state,  and  Henry  Clay,  speaker  of  the 
national  House  of  Kepresentatives,  the  leading  candidates 
for  President.   There  was,  as  yet,  no  real  break  in  the  Re- 


324  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE    [Chap.  xxix. 

publican  party.  No  national  question  had  appeared  upon 
which  the  nation  was  divided;  and,  although  individuals  in 
the  South  took  exception  to  protective  duties,  the  party  had 
made  no  claim  that  the  tariff  system  of  1816  was  either  in- 
expedient or  unconstitutional.  The  selection  of  a  candidate 
for  President  had,  however,  become  intensely  personal,  divid- 
ing the  country  into  excited  factions  equivalent  to  a  division 
of  parties.  In  New  York,  Van  Buren  and  the  Albany  Re- 
gency favoured  Crawford;  James  Tallmadge,  Henry  Whea- 
ton,  Thurlow  Weed  and  others  preferred  Adams;  and  Sam- 
uel Young,  Peter  B.  Porter  and  their  friends  warmly  sup- 
ported Clay.  The  heated  contest  extended  to  the  people,  who 
understood  that  the  choice  of  Crawford  electors  by  the  Legis- 
lature would  control  the  election  for  the  Georgian,  while  a 
change  in  the  law  would  give  Adams  or  Clay  a  chance.  To 
insure  such  a  change,  the  opponents  of  Crawford,  calling 
themselves  the  People's  party,  made  several  nominations  for 
the  Assembly,  and  among  those  elected  by  overwhelming  ma- 
jorities were  Tallmadge  and  Wheaton. 

If  Tallmadge  was  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  the  Peo- 
ple's party,  Henry  Wheaton  was  easily  second.  Though  seven 
years  younger,  he  had  already  made  himself  prominent,  not 
merely  as  a  politician  of  general  ability,  but  as  a  reporter  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  whose  conscientious  and 
intelligent  work  was  to  link  his  name  forever  with  the  juris- 
prudence of  the  country.  During  the  War  of  1812,  Wheaton 
had  edited  the  National  Advocate,  writing  a  series  of  impor- 
tant papers  on  neutral  rights ;  and,  subsequently,  he  had  be- 
come division  judge-advocate  of  the  army,  and  justice  of  the 
marine  court  of  New  York  City.  From  the  constitutional 
convention  of  1821,  he  stepped  into  the  Assembly  of  1824, 
where,  in  the  debates  over  the  choice  of  electors  by  the  peo- 
ple, his  ready  eloquence  made  him  a  valuable  ally  for  Tall- 
madge and  a  formidable  opponent  to  Flagg.  His  ambition  to 
shine  as  a  statesman,  and  an  extraordinary  power  of  applica- 
tion, equipped  him  with  varied  information,  and  made  him 
an  authority  on  many  subjects.    He  joined  Benjamin  F.  But- 


1824]  HENRY  WHEATON  325 

ler  in  the  revision  of  the  statutes  of  the  State,  and  was  as- 
sociated with  Daniel  Webster  in  settling  the  limits  of  the 
bankruptcy  legislation  of  the  state  and  federal  govern- 
ments. Just  now  he  was  still  a  young  man,  only  in  his 
thirty-ninth  year;  but  those  who  had  seen  his  keen,  clever 
articles  on  neutral  rights,  polished  and  penetrating  in  style, 
and  who  heard  his  skilful  and  fearless  advocacy  of  the 
people's  right  to  choose  electors,  were  not  surprised  to  learn 
of  his  appointment,  in  later  life,  as  a  lecturer  at  Harvard,  or 
to  read  his  great  work  on  the  Elements  of  International  Law, 
published  in  1836.  As  a  reward  for  the  part  he  took  in  the 
election  of  1824,  President  Adams  sent  him  to  Denmark, 
from  whence  he  went  to  Prussia — these  appointments  keep- 
ing him  abroad  for  twenty  years. 

John  Van  Ness  Yates  urged  his  uncle  to  recommend  a 
change  in  the  law  regulating  the  choice  of  electors;  and  if 
the  Governor  had  possessed  the  political  wisdom  necessary 
in  such  an  emergency,  he  would  doubtless  have  taken  the 
suggestion.  But  Yates  thought  it  wise  to  follow  the 
Regency ;  the  Regency  thought  it  wise  to  follow  Van  Buren ; 
and  Van  Buren  opposed  a  change,  as  prejudicial  to  Craw- 
ford's interests.  The  result  was  a  bungling  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Governor  to  evade  the  direct  expression  of  an 
opinion.  Finally,  however,  he  said  that  as  Congress  was 
likely  soon  to  present  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  for 
legislative  sanction,  it  was  inadvisable  "under  existing  cir- 
cumstances" to  change  the  law  "at  this  time."^  This  was 
neither  skilful  nor  truthful.  Congress  had  no  thought  of  do- 
ing anything  of  the  kind,  and,  if  it  had,  men  knew  that  an 
amendment  could  not  be  secured  in  time  to  operate  at  the 
coming  election.  Yates'  message,  therefore,  was  pronounced 
"a  shabby  dodge,"  a  trick  familiar  to  many  statesmen  in 
diflSculties. 

When  the  Legislature  convened,  in  January,  1824,  a  bill 
authorising  the  people  to  choose  electors  naturally  excited 
a  long  and  bitter  debate,  in  which  Azariah  C.  Flagg  repre- 
^  Governors    Speeches,  Aug.  2,  1824,  p.  218, 


526  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE    LChap.  xxix. 

sented  the  Regency.  Flagg  was  a  printer  by  trade,  the  pub- 
lisher of  a  Republican  paper  at  Plattsburg,  and  a  veteran  of 
the  War  of  1812.  He  was  not  prepossessing  in  appearance ; 
his  diminutive  stature,  surmounted  by  a  big,  round  head  gave 
bim  the  appearance  of  Atlas  with  the  world  upon  his  shoul- 
ders. His  voice,  too,  was  shrill  and  unattractive;  but  he  sud- 
denly evinced  shrewdness  and  address  in  legislative  tactics 
that  greatly  worried  his  opponents  and  pleased  his  friends. 
A  majority  of  the  Assembly,  however,  afraid  of  their  excited 
and  indignant  constituents,  finally  passed  the  bill.  When  it 
reached  the  Senate,  the  supporters  of  Crawford  indefinitely 
postponed  it  by  a  vote  of  seventeen  to  fourteen. 

The  defeat  of  this  measure  raised  a  storm  of  popular  in- 
dignation. People  were  exasperated.  Newspapers,  opposed 
to  the  Van  Buren  leaders,  published  in  black-letter  type  the 
names  of  senators  who  voted  against  it,  while  the  frequent- 
ers of  public  places  denounced  them  as  "traitors,  villains, 
and  rascals,"  with  the  result  that  most  of  them  were  con- 
signed to  retirement  during  the  remainder  of  their  lives. 
^'The  impression  here  is  that  Van  Buren  and  his  junto  are 
politically  dead,"  wrote  DeWitt  Clinton  to  Henry  Post  on 
the  17th  of  February,  1824.  "The  impression  will  produce 
the  event." ^ 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement,  came  the  selection  of  a 
candidate  for  governor,  to  be  elected  in  the  following  Novem- 
ber. Yates  had  done  the  bidding  of  the  Regency  and  Flagg 
demanded  his  renomination,  but  the  men  who  supported  a 
change  in  the  mode  of  choosing  electors  declared  that  Yates 
was  the  original  opponent  of  the  people's  wishes,  and  that,  if 
renominated,  he  could  not  be  re-elected.  "If  the  Governor  is 
to  be  sacrificed  for  his  fidelity,"  retorted  Flagg,  "I  am  ready 
to  suffer  with  him."  From  a  sentimental  standpoint,  this 
avowal  was  most  creditable  and  generous,  but  it  had  no  place 
in  the  councils  of  politicians  to  whom  sentiment  never  ap- 
peals when  the  shrouded  figure  of  defeat  stands  at  the  open 

'^  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  568. 


1S24]  A  NEW  POLITICAL  ERA  327 

door.  Just  now,  too,  their  fears  increased  as  evidence  accum- 
ulated that  Samuel  Young  would  certainly  be  offered  a  nomi- 
nation by  the  People's  party,  and  would  certainly  accept  it, 
if  he  were  not  quickly  nominated  by  the  Regency  Republi- 
cans. When  the  legislators  went  into  caucus  on  the  3d  of 
April,  1824,  therefore,  the  friends  of  Van  Buren  were  ready 
to  throw  over  Yates  and  to  accept  Young,  with  Erastus  Root 
for  lieutenant-governor. 

Three  days  afterward,  the  most  influential  and  active 
friends  of  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Henry  Clay  decided  that 
a  state  convention — consisting  of  as  many  delegates  as  there 
were  members  of  the  Assembly,  to  be  chosen  by  voters  op- 
posed to  William  H.  Crawford  for  President  and  in  favour  of 
restoring  the  choice  of  presidential  electors  to  the  people — ■ 
should  assemble  at  Utica,  on  September  21,  1824,  to  nomi- 
nate candidates  for  governor  and  lieutenant-governor.  It 
had  long  been  a  dream  of  Clinton  to  have  nominations  made 
by  delegates  elected  by  the  people.  That  dream  was  now  to  be 
realised,  and  the  door  to  a  new  political  era  opened. 

Though  Clinton  had  announced  a  determination  to  sup- 
port Andrew  Jackson,  he  displayed  no  zeal  in  the  state  con- 
test, and  contented  himself  with  writing  gossipy  letters  to 
Post  and  in  watching  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Erie  canal.  As 
early  as  1819,  the  canal  had  been  opened  between  Utica  and 
Rome,  and  from  the  Hudson  to  Lake  Champlain,  The  middle 
section,  recently  completed,  was  now  actively  in  use  between 
Utica  and  Montezuma.  In  little  more  than  a  year,  the 
jubilee  over  the  letting  in  of  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  would 
deaden  the  strife  of  parties  with  booming  of  cannon  and  ex- 
pressions of  joy.  Throughout  all  the  delays  and  vexations 
of  this  wonderful  enterprise,  DeWitt  Clinton  had  been  the 
great  inspiring  force,  and,  although  for  several  years  the 
board  of  canal  commissioners  had  been  reorganised  in  the 
interest  of  the  Bucktails,  not  a  whisper  was  heard  intimat- 
ing any  desire  or  intention  to  interfere  with  him.  When  it 
was  known,  however,  that  James  Tallmadge  had  been  agreed 
upon  as  the  candidate  of  the  People's  party  for  governor, 


328  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE    [Chap.  xxix. 

the  Regency,  in  order  to  split  his  forces,  determined  upon 
Clinton's  removal  from  all  participation  in  the  management 
of  the  canal.  If  Tallmadge  voted  for  such  a  resolution, 
reasoned  the  Van  Buren  leaders,  it  would  alienate  the  po- 
litical friends  with  whom  he  was  just  now  acting;  if  he  voted 
against  it,  he  would  alienate  Tammany. 

It  was  a  bold  game  of  politics,  and  a  dangerous  one.  The 
people  did  not  love  Clinton,  but  they  believed  in  his  policy, 
and  a  blow  at  him,  in  their  opinion,  was  a  blow  at  the  canal. 
Nothing  in  the  whole  of  Van  Buren's  history  exhibits  a  more 
foolish  disregard  of  public  sentiment,  or  led  to  a  greater  dis- 
aster. But  the  Regency,  blinded  by  its  overwhelming  vic- 
tory at  the  last  election,  was  prepared  to  pay  a  gambler's 
price  for  power,  and,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  before  the 
Assembly  knew  what  had  happened,  the  Senate  removed 
Clinton  from  the  oflice  of  canal  commissioner,  only  three 
votes  being  recorded  for  him.  Thurlow  Weed  happened  to  be 
a  witness  of  the  proceeding,  and,  rushing  to  the  Assembly 
chamber,  urged  Tallmadge  to  resist  its  passage  through  the 
house.  ''I  knew  how  bitterly  General  Tallmadge  hated  Mr. 
Clinton,"  he  says,  ^'but  in  a  few  hurried  and  emphatic  sen- 
tences implored  him  not  to  be  caught  in  the  trap  thus  baited 
for  him.  I  urged  him  to  state  frankly,  in  a  brief  speech,  how 
entirely  he  was  estranged  personally  and  politically  from 
Mr.  Clinton,  but  to  denounce  his  removal  during  the  suc- 
cessful progress  of  a  system  of  improvement  which  he  had 
inaugurated,  and  which  would  confer  prosperity  and  wealth 
upon  the  people  and  enrich  and  elevate  our  State,  as  an  act 
of  vandalism  to  which  he  could  not  consent  to  be  a  party. 
I  concluded  by  assuring  him  solemnly  that  if  he  voted  for 
that  resolution  he  could  not  receive  the  nomination  for 
governor."^ 

But  Tallmadge  remained    dumb.     Gamaliel  H.  Barstow, 

formerly  a  Clintonian,  walked  out  of  the  chamber.  Other  old 

friends  showed  indifference.     Only  Henry  Cunningham  of 

Montgomery,  entering  the  chamber  while  the  clerk  was  read- 

*  AutohiograpJiy  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  109. 


1824]  A  DEEADFUL  BLUNDER  329 

ing  the  resolution,  eloquently  denounced  it.  ''When  the  mis- 
erable party  strifes  shall  have  passed  by,"  he  said,  in  conclu- 
sion ;  ''when  the  political  jugglers  who  now  beleaguer  this 
capital  shall  be  overwhelmed  and  forgotten ;  when  the  gentle 
breeze  shall  pass  over  the  tomb  of  that  great  man,  carrying 
with  it  the  just  tribute  of  honour  and  praise  which  is  now 
withheld,  the  pen  of  the  future  historian  will  do  him  justice,  > 
and  erect  to  his  memory  a  monument  of  fame  as  imperish- 
able as  the  splendid  works  that  owe  their  origin  to  his  genius 
and  perseverance."*  One  or  two  others  spoke  briefly  in 
Clinton's  behalf,  and  then  the  resolution  passed — ayes  sixty- 
four,  noes  thirty-four.  Among  the  ayes  were  Tallmadge  and 
Wheaton. 

Had  Clinton  been  assassinated,  the  news  could  not  have 
produced  a  greater  shock.  Scarcely  had  the  Assembly  ad- 
journed, before  the  citizens  of  Albany — rushing  into  the  va- 
cant chamber  and  electing  the  old  and  venerable  John  Tay- 
lor, the  former  lieutenant-governor,  for  chairman — ex- 
pressed their  indignation  in  denunciatory  speeches  and  reso- 
lutions. In  New  York  Cily,  a  committee  of  twenty-five, 
headed  by  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  called  in  person 
upon  Clinton  to  make  known  the  feeling  of  the  meeting. 
Everywhere  throughout  the  State,  the  removal  awakened  a 
cyclone  of  resentment,  the  members  who  voted  for  it  being 
the  storm-centres.  At  Canandaigua,  personal  indignities 
were  threatened.^  "Several  members,"  says  Weed,  "were 
hissed  as  they  came  out  of  the  capitol.  Tallmadge  received 
unmistakable  evidence,  on  his  way  through  State  Street  to 
his  lodgings,  of  the  great  error  he  had  committed.  His  hotel 
was  filled  with  citizens,  whose  rebukes  were  loudly  heard  as 
he  passed  through  the  hall  to  his  apartment,  and  as  he  ner- 
vously paced  backward  and  forward  in  his  parlour,  'the  vic- 
tim of  remorse  that  comes  too  late,'  he  perceived  both  the 
depth  and  the  darkness  of  the  political  pit  into  which  he  had 
fallen."^ 

*  Autobiography   of  Thnrloic  Weed,  p.  110.  '  Ibid.,  p.  114. 

Ubid.,  p.  113. 


330  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE    [Chap.  xxix. 

Immediately,  the  tide  began  setting  strongly  in  favour  of 
Clinton  for  governor.  Clintonian  papers  urged  it,  and  per- 
sonal friends  wrote  and  rode  over  the  State  in  his  interest. 
Clinton  himself  became  sanguine  of  success.  ''Tallmadge 
can  scarcely  get  a  vote  in  his  own  county,"  he  wrote  Post  on 
the  21st  of  April.  *'He  is  the  prince  of  rascals — if  Wheaton 
does  not  exceed  him."^ 

Meanwhile,  a  sensation  long  foreseen  by  those  in  the  Gov- 
ernor's inner  circle,  was  about  to  be  sprung.  Yates  was  not 
a  man  to  be  rudely  thrust  out  of  office.  He  knew  he  had 
blundered  in  opposing  an  electoral  law,  and  he  now  proposed 
giving  the  Legislature  another  opportunity  to  enact  one.  The 
Regency  did  not  believe  there  would  be  an  extra  session,  be- 
cause, as  Attorney-General  Talcott  suggested,  the  power  to 
convene  the  Legislature  was  a  high  prerogative,  the  exercise 
of  which  required  more  decision  and  nerve  than  Yates  pos- 
sessed; but,  on  the  2nd  of  June,  to  the  surprise  and  con- 
sternation of  the  Van  Buren  leaders,  Yates  issued  a  procla- 
mation reconvening  the  Legislature  on  August  2.  It 
was  predicated  upon  the  failure  of  Congress  to  amend  the 
Constitution,  upon  the  recent  defeat  of  the  electoral  bill  in 
the  Senate,  and  upon  the  just  alarm  of  the  people,  that  ''their 
undoubted  right"  of  choosing  presidential  electors  would  be 
withheld  from  them.  Very  likely,  it  afforded  the  Governor 
much  satisfaction  to  make  this  open  and  damaging  attack 
upon  the  Regency.  He  had  surrendered  independence  if  not 
self-respect,  and,  in  return  for  his  fidelity,  had  been  ruth- 
lessly cast  aside  for  his  less  faithful  rival.  Yet  his  purpose 
was  more  than  revenge.  Between  the  Clintonian  prejudice 
against  Tallmadge,  and  the  People's  party's  hatred  of  Clin- 
ton, the  Governor  hoped  he  might  become  a  compromise  can- 
didate at  the  Utica  convention.    The  future,  however,  had  no 

^DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Earpefs  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  569.  Clinton  seems  to  have  taken  a  particular  dislike 
to  Henry  Wheaton.  Elsewhere,  he  writes  to  Post:  "There  is  but 
one  opinion  about  Wheaton,  and  that  is  that  he  is  a  pitiful  scoun- 
drel."—/6?d.,  p.  417. 


1824]  A  POPULAR  UPRISING  331 

place  for  him.  He  was  ridiculed  the  more  by  his  enemies  and 
dropped  into  the  pit  of  oblivion  by  his  former  friends.  Noth- 
ing in  his  public  life,  perhaps,  became  him  so  well  as  his 
dignified  retirement  at  Schenectady,  amid  the  scenes  of  his 
youth,  where  he  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  leaving  a  place 
in  history  not  strongly  marked. 

Yates'  extra  session  lasted  four  days  and  did  nothing  ex- 
cept to  snub  the  Governor  and  give  the  eloquent  Tallmadge, 
amidst  tumultuous  applause  from  the  galleries,  an  opportu- 
nity of  annoying  the  Regenc}-  by  keeping  up  the  popular  ex- 
citement over  a  change  in  the  choice  of  electors  until  the  as- 
sembling of  the  Utica  convention.  As  the  days  passed,  the 
sentiment  for  Clinton  became  stronger  and  more  apparent. 
Thurlow  Weed,  travelling  over  the  State  in  the  interest  of 
Tallmadge,  found  Clinton's  nomination  almost  universally 
demanded,  with  Tallmadge  a  favourite  for  second  place.  This, 
the  eloquent  gentleman  peremptorily  refused,  until  an  ap- 
peal for  harmony,  and  the  suggestion  that  Adams'  election 
might  open  to  him  a  broader  field  for  usefulness  than  that 
of  being  governor,  produced  the  desired  change.  Probably 
Tallmadge  felt  within  himself  that  he  was  not  destined  to 
a  great  political  career.  In  any  case,  he  finally  accepted  the 
offer  with  perfect  good  humour,  giving  Weed  a  brief  letter 
consenting  to  the  use  of  his  name  as  lieutenant-governor. 
With  this  the  young  journalist  arrived  at  Utica  on  the  morn- 
ing of  convention  day. 

There  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  delegates  in  the 
convention,  of  whom  one-fourth  belonged  to  the  People's 
party.  These  supported  Tallmadge  for  governor.  When  they 
discovered  that  Tallmadge's  vote  to  remove  Clinton  had  put 
him  out  of  the  race,  they  suggested  John  W.  Taylor;  but  a 
delegate  from  Saratoga  produced  a  letter  in  which  the  dis- 
tinguished opponent  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  declined 
to  become  a  candidate.  This  left  the  way  open  to  DeWitt 
Clinton,  and,  as  he  carried  off  the  nomination  by  a  large  ma- 
jority, with  Tallmadge  for  lieutenant-governor  by  acclama- 
tion, many  representatives  of  the  People's  party  walked  out 


332  CLINTON  AGAIN  IN  THE  SADDLE     [Chap.  xxix. 

of  the  hall  and  reorganised  another  convention,  resolving  to 
support  Tallmadge,  but  protesting  against  the  nomination 
of  Clinton — "a  diversion,"  says  Weed,  *Svhich  was  soon  for- 
gotten amid  the  general  and  pervading  enthusiasm."* 

The  election  of  governor  in  1824  passed  into  history  as  one 
of  the  most  stirring  ever  witnessed  in  the  State.  In  a  fight, 
Samuel  Young  and  DeWitt  Clinton  were  at  home.  They 
neither  asked  nor  gave  quarter.  There  is  no  record  that  their 
fluency  or  invective  did  more  than  add  to  the  excitement  of 
the  campaign ;  but  each  was  well  supplied  with  ready  venom. 
Young  was  rhetorical  and  dramatic — Clinton  energetic  and 
forceful.  People,  listening  to  Y'^oung,  rocked  with  laughter 
and  revelled  in  applause  as  he  pilloried  his  opponents,  the 
ferocity  of  his  attacks  being  surpassed  only  by  the  eloquence 
of  his  periods.  With  Clinton,  speaking  was  serious  business. 
He  lacked  the  oratorical  gift  and  the  art  of  concealing  the 
labour  of  his  overwrought  and  too  elaborate  sentences ;  but 
his  addresses  afforded  ample  evidence  of  the  capacity  and 
richness  of  his  mind.  In  spite  of  great  faults,  both  candi- 
dates commanded  the  loyalty  of  followers  who  swelled  with 
pride  because  of  their  courage  and  splendid  ability.  The 
confidence  of  the  Regency  and  the  usual  success  of  Tammany 
at  first  made  the  friends  of  Clinton  unhappy;  but  as  the 
campaign  advanced,  Y'oung  discovered  that  the  Regency,  in 
insisting  on  the  choice  of  electors  by  the  Legislature,  had 
given  the  opposition  the  most  telling  cry  it  could  possibly 
have  found  against  him ;  that  the  popular  tumult  over  Clin- 
ton's removal  was  growing  from  day  to  day;  and  that  his 
opponents  were  banded  together  against  him  on  many 
grounds  and  with  many  different  purposes.  Two  weeks  be- 
fore the  election,  it  was  evident  to  every  one  that  the  Re- 
gency was  doomed,  that  Van  Buren  was  disconcerted,  and 
that  Y^oung  was  beaten ;  but  no  one  expected  that  Clinton's 
majority  would  reach  sixteen  thousand,®  or  that  Tallmadge 

^  Antobiagraphy"  of  Thurloic  Weed,  p.  120. 

"DeWitt  Clinton,  103,452;  Samuel  Young,  87,093.— Civil  List,  State 
of  New  York   (1887),  p.  166. 


1824]  A  KNOCKOUT  BLOW  333 

would  run  thirty-two  thousand  ahead  of  Erastus  Root.  The 
announcement  came  like  a  thunderbolt,  bringing  with  it  the 
intelligence  that  out  of  eight  senators  only  two  Regency 
men  had  been  spared,  while,  in  the  Assembly,  the  opposition 
had  three  to  one.  In  other  words,  the  election  of  1822  had 
been  completely  reversed.  Clinton  was  again  in  the  saddle. 
Samuel  Young's  political  fortunes  never  recovered  from 
this  encounter  with  the  illustrious  champion  of  the  canals. 
He  was  much  in  office  afterward.  For  eight  years  he  served 
in  the  State  Senate,  and  once  as  lieutenant-governor;  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  he  lived  on,  a  marvellous  orator,  whom 
the  people  never  tired  of  hearing,  and  whom  opponents 
never  ceased  to  fear ;  but  the  glow  that  lingers  about  a  public 
man  who  had  never  been  overwhelmed  by  the  suffrage  of  his 
fellow-citizens  was  gone  forever. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

VAN  BUREN  ENCOUNTERS  WEED 

1824 

Political  interest,  in  1824,  centred  in  the  election  of  a 
President  as  well  as  a  Governor.  Three  candidates, — William 
H.  Crawford  of  Georgia,  John  Quincy  Adams  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky, — divided  the  parties  in 
New  York.  No  one  thought  of  DeWitt  Clinton.  Very  likely, 
after  his  overwhelming  election,  Clinton,  in  his  joy,  felt  his 
ambition  again  aroused.  He  had  been  inoculated  with 
presidential  rabies  in  1812,  and  his  letters  to  Henry  Post 
showed  signs  of  continued  madness.  ''I  think  Crawford 
is  hors  de  conibat,"  he  wrote  in  March,  1824.  ''Calhoun 
never  had  force,  and  Clay  is  equally  out  of  the  question.  As 
for  Adams,  he  can  only  succeed  by  the  imbecility  of  his  oppo- 
nents, not  by  his  own  strength.  In  this  crisis  may  not  some 
other  person  bear  away  the  palm?"^  Then  follows  the  his- 
toric illustration,  indicating  that  the  canal  champion 
thought  he  might  become  a  compromise  candidate:  ''Do 
you  recollect  the  story  of  Themistocles  the  Athenian?  After 
the  naval  victory  of  Salamis  a  council  of  generals  was  held 
to  determine  on  the  most  worthy.  Each  man  was  to  write 
down  two  names,  the  first  and  the  next  best.  Each  general 
wrote  his  own  name  for  the  first,  and  that  of  Themistocles 
for  the  second.  May  not  this  contest  have  a  similar  result? 
I  am  persuaded  that  with  common  prudence  we  will  stand 
better  than  ever."^ 

^DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  568. 

""  Ibid.,  Vol.  50,  p.  586. 

834 


1824]  CLINTON    FAVOURS    JACKSON  335 

But  the  field  was  preoccupied  and  the  competitors  too  nu- 
merous. So,  getting  no  encouragement,  Clinton  turned  to 
the  hero  of  New  Orleans.  ''In  Jackson,"  he  wrote  Post,  "we 
must  look  for  a  sincere  and  honest  friend.  Whatever  dem- 
onstrations are  made  from  other  quarters  are  dictated  by 
policy  and  public  sentiment."^  He  grows  impatient  with 
Clay,  indignant  at  the  apparent  success  of  Adams,  and  vitu- 
perative over  the  tactics  of  Calhoun.  "Clay  ought  to  resign 
forthwith,"  he  writes  on  the  17th  of  April,  1824 ;  "his  chance 
is  worse  than  nothing.  Jackson  would  then  prevail  with  all 
the  Western  States,  if  we  can  get  New  Jersey."*  Four  days 
later  he  was  sure  of  New  Jersey.  "We  can  get  her,"  he  as- 
sures Post,  on  April  21.  "T  see  no  terrors  in  Adams'  papers; 
his  influence  has  gone  with  his  morals."^ 

But  tn^  midsummer  Clinton  had  become  alarmed  at  the 
action  of  the  candidate  from  South  Carolina.  "Calhoun  is 
acting  a  treacherous  part  to  Jackson,"  he  says,  under  date 
of  July  23,  "and  is  doing  all  he  can  for  Adams.  Perhaps 
there  is  not  a  man  in  the  United  States  more  hollow-headed 
and  base.  I  have  long  observed  his  manoeuvres."^  A  week 
later  Clinton  speaks  of  Calhoun  as  "a  thorough-paced  politi- 
cal blackleg."^  In  August  he  gives  Adams  another  slap. 
"The  great  danger  is  that  there  will  be  a  quarrel  between 
the  friends  of  Jackson  and  Adams,  and  that  in  the  war  be- 
tween the  lion  and  the  unicorn  the  cur  may  slip  in  and  carry 
off  the  prize."® 

*  DeWitt  Clinton's  Letters  to  Henry  Post,  in  Harper's  Magazine, 
Vol.  50,  p.  568. 

*Ibid.,  p.  568.  Ubid.,  p.  569. 

« Ibid.,  p.  569.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  569. 

^  Ibid.,    p.   569. 

"Clinton's  presidential  aspirations  made  him  a  very  censorious 
judge  of  all  who  did  not  sympathise  Avith  them.  The  four  com- 
peting' candidates,  Crawford,  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Adams,  could 
hardly  be  paralleled,  Clinton  being  judge,  by  an  equal  number  of 
the  twelve  Caesars  of  Suetonius.  Crawford  is  'as  hardened  a  ruffian 
as  Burr';  Calhoun  is  'treacherous',  and  'a  thorough-paced  political 
blackleg.'  Adams  'in  politics  was  an  apostate,  and  In  private  life 
a  pedagogue,  and  everything  but  amiable  and  honest',  while  his 


336  VAN  BUREN  ENCOUNTERS  WEED    [Chap.  xxx. 

Though  Clinton  and  Jackson  had  long  been  admirers, 
there  is  no  evidence  that,  at  this  time,  so  much  as  a  letter 
had  passed  between  them.  One  can  easily  understand,  how- 
ever, that  a  man  of  the  iron  will  and  great  achievement  of 
the  Tennesseean  would  profoundly  interest  DeWitt  Clinton. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  proud,  aspiring,  unpliant  man  whose 
canal  policy  brought  national  renown,  had  won  the  admira- 
tion of  Andrew  Jackson.  In  1818,  at  a  Nashville  banquet,  he 
had  toasted  Clinton,  declaring  him  "the  promoter  of  his 
country's  best  interests;"  and  one  year  later,  at  a  dinner 
given  in  his  honour  by  the  mayor  of  New  York,  Jackson  con- 
founded most  of  the  Bucktail  banqueters  and  surprised  them 
all  by  proposing  "DeWitt  Clinton,  the  enlightened  statesman 
and  governor  of  the  great  and  patriotic  State  of  New  York." 
The  two  men  had  many  characteristics  in  common.  Neither 
would  stoop  to  conquer.  But  the  dramatic  thing  about  Clin- 
ton's interest  just  now,  was  his  proclamation  for  Jackson, 
when  everybody  else  in  New  York  was  for  some  other  candi- 
date. The  bitterness  of  that  hour  was  very  earnest.  What- 
ever chance  existed  for  Jackson  outside  of  the  State,  there 
was  not  the  slightest  hope  for  him  within  it.  Nevertheless; 
Clinton  seemed  indifferent.  He  was  a  statesman  without 
being  a  politician.  He  believed  in  Jackson's  star,  and  it  was 
this  prescience,  as  the  sequel  showed,  that  was  to  give  him, 
in  spite  of  opponents,  a  sixth  term  as  governor. 

Clinton's  resume  of  the  political  situation,  written  to  Post, 
also  showed  his  unfailing  knowledge  of  the  conditions  about 

father,  the  ex-President,  was  'a  scamp.'  Governor  Yates  is  'per- 
fidious and  weak.'  Henry  Wheaton's  'conduct  is  shamefully  dis- 
graceful, and  he  might  be  lashed  naked  round  the  world.'  Chief 
Justice  Ambrose  Spencer  is  classed  as  a  minus  quantity,  and  his 
son  John  C,  'the  political  millstone  of  the  West.'  Peter  B.  Porter 
'wears  a  mask.'  Woodworth  'is  a  weak  man,  with  sinister  pur- 
poses.' Eoot  is  'a  bad  man.'  Samuel  Young"  'is  unpopular  and 
suspicions  are  entertained  of  his  integrity.'  Van  Buren  'is  the 
prince  of  villains.'  The  first  impression  produced  is  one  of  aston- 
ishment that  a  man  capable  of  such  great  things  could  ever  have 
taken  such  a  lively  interest,  as  he  seemed  to,  in  the  mere  scullionery 
of  politics." — John  Bigelow,  in  Harper's  Magazine,  March,  1875. 


1824]  A  NEW  RICHMOND  337 

to  be  enacted  at  Albany.  The  Legislature  which  assembled 
in  extra  session,  in  November,  1824,  for  the  appointment  of 
presidential  electors,  was  the  same  Assembly  that  had  fa- 
voured the  choice  of  electors  by  the  people,  and  the  same 
Senate  which  had  indefinitely  postponed  that  measure  by  a 
vote  of  seventeen  to  fourteen.  The  former  struggle,  there- 
fore, was  immediately  renewed  in  the  legislative  halls,  with 
Martin  Van  Buren  confident  of  seventeen  Crawford  votes  in 
the  Senate,  and  enough  more  in  the  Assembly,  with  the  help 
of  the  Clay  men,  to  give  the  Georgian  a  majority  on  joint 
ballot. 

The  Adams  men  had  less  confidence,  but  no  less  shrewd- 
ness and  skill.  A  new  Richmond  had  arrived  on  the  field. 
Since  his  visitation  through  the  State  two  years  before,  in 
behalf  of  Solomon  Southwick's  candidacy  for  governor, 
Thurlow  Weed  had  been  growing  rapidly  in  political  experi- 
ence. He  left  Manlius  without  a  penny  in  the  autumn  of 
1822  to  find  work  on  the  Rochester  Telegraph,  a  Clintonian 
paper  of  small  pretensions  and  smaller  circulation.  Under 
its  new  manager,  and  with  the  name  of  John  Quincy  Adams 
for  President  at  the  head  of  the  editorial  page,  it  soon  be- 
came so  popular  and  belligerent  that  the  business  men  of 
Rochester  sent  Weed  to  Albany  as  their  agent  to  secure  from 
the  Legislature  a  charter  for  a  bank.  Upon  his  arrival  at 
the  capital,  the  friends  of  the  New  England  candidate  wel- 
comed him  to  the  great  political  arena  in  which  he  was  to 
fight  so  long,  so  brilliantly,  and  with  such  success. 

It  was  at  this  period  in  his  history,  that  Thurlow  Weed's 
connection  with  public  life  began,  developing  into  that  won- 
derful career  which  made  him  one  of  the  most  influential 
^writers  and  strongest  personalities  of  his  day.  He  was  not 
an  orator ;  he  was  not  even  a  public  talker.  One  attempt  to 
speak  met  with  failure  so  embarrassing  that  he  never  tried  a 
second  time;  but  he  was  a  companionable  being.  THe  loved 
the  company  of  men.  He  had  suffered  so  much,  and  yet  re- 
tained so  mvnih  of  the  serenity  of  a  child,  that  he  was  ever 
ready  to  share  his  purse  and  his  mantle  of  pity  with  the  un- 


338  VAN  BUREN  ENCOUNTERS  WEED     [Chap.  xxx. 

fortunate,  brightening  their  lives  with  a  tender  sympathy 
that  endeared  him  to  all.  It  was  so  natural  for  him  to  guide 
wisely  and  noiselessly  that  he  seemed  unconscious  of  his 
great  gifts.  Men  in  high  places,  often  opulent  and  happy  in 
their  ease,  deferred  to  him  with  the  confidence  of  pupils  to  a 
beloved  teacher.  But  he  possessed  more  than  philosophic 
wisdom.  He  was  sleepless  and  tireless.  It  was  his  custom  to 
attend  political  gatherings  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  men  in  that  "inner  circle,"  who 
controlled  the  affairs  of  party  and  the  destiny  of  aspiring 
statesmen.  In  1822  he  had  toured  the  State  in  the  interest 
of  Solomon  Southwick.  From  April  to  December,  in  1824, 
he  attended  two  extra  sessions  of  the  Legislature  and  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Electoral  College,  besides  travelling  twice  through- 
out the  State  in  behalf  of  the  candidacy  of  John  Quincy 
Adams.  Traversing  New  York,  over  rough  roads,  before  the 
days  of  canals  and  railroads,  in  the  heavy,  lumbering  stage 
coach  that  took  five  or  six  days  and  nights,  and,  in  muddy 
seasons,  six  days  and  seven  nights  of  continuous  travel,  to 
go  from  Albany  to  Buffalo,  made  a  strenuous  life,  but 
Weed's  devotion  to  party,  and  fidelity  to  men  and  principles, 
sent  him  on  his  way  with  something  of  the  freshness  of  boy- 
hood still  shining  on  Jiis  face.  He  had  his  faults,  but  they 
were  not  of  a  kind  to  prevent  men  from  finding  him  lovablg^^. 

When  Weed  came  to  Albany,  in  November,  1824,  as  the  ad- 
vocate of  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  only  hope  of  success  was 
the  union  of  the  friends  of  Clay  and  Adams,  since  only  two 
electoral  tickets,  under  the  Constitution,  could  be  voted  for. 
In  the  Senate,  Crawford  had  seventeen  votes,  and  Adams  and 
Clay  seven  each ;  in  the  Assembly,  the  first  ballot  gave  Craw- 
ford forty-three,  Adams  fifty,  and  Clay  thirty-two.  Until 
some  combination  was  made,  therefore,  a  majority  could  not 
be  obtained  for  any  candidate.  To  make  such  an  union  re- 
quired fine  diplomacy  between  the  Adams  and  Clay  men ;  for 
it  appeared  that  Clay  must  have  at  least  seven  electoral 
votes  from  New  York  in  order  to  become  one  of  the  three 
candidates  to  be  voted  for  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 


1824]  A  FORTUNATE  EXPOSURE  339 

should  the  election  of  President  be  thrown  into  Congress. 
Fortunately  for  the  Adams  men,  the  Crawford  people  also 
had  their  troubles,  and  to  hold  two  senators  in  line  they 
placed  the  names  of  six  moderate  Clay  men  on  their  ticket. 
Thereupon,  at  a  secret  meeting,  the  Adams  and  Clay  leaders 
agreed  to  support  thirty  Adams  men  and  the  six  Clay  men 
upon  the  Crawford  ticket,  the  friends  of  Adams  promising, 
if  Clay  carried  Louisiana,  to  furnish  him  the  needed  seven 
votes.  Naturally  enough,  the  success  of  this  programme  de- 
pended upon  the  utmost  secrecy,  since  their  ticket,  with  the 
help  of  all  the  Clay  votes  that  could  be  mustered,  would  not 
exceed  two  majority.  The  better  to  secure  such  secrecy 
Weed  personally  printed  the  ballots  on  the  Sunday  before 
the  final  vote  on  Tuesday. 

There  was  another  well-kept  secret.  Thurlow  Weed  had 
had  his  suspicions  turned  into  absolute  evidence  that  Henry 
Eckford  of  New  York  City,  a  wealthy  supporter  of  Craw- 
ford, had  furnished  money  to  influence  three  Adams  men  to 
vote  for  the  Georgian,  He  had  followed  their  go-between 
from  Syracuse  to  Albany,  from  Albany  to  New  York,  and 
from  New  York  back  to  Albany;  he  had  heard  their  renuncia- 
tion of  Adams  and  their  changed  sentiments  toward  Craw- 
ford; and  he  knew  also  that  the  Adams  ticket  was  lost  if 
these  three  votes,  or  even  two  of  them,  were  cast  for  the 
Crawford  ticket.  Weed  straightway  proposed  that  the  dis- 
honourable purposes  of  these  men  should  be  anticipated  by 
an  immediate  declaration  of  war;  and, upon  their  appearance 
in  Albany,  Henry  Wheaton  faced  them  with  the  story  of 
their  dishonour,  threatening  an  exposure  unless  they  voted  a 
ballot  bearing  the  initials  of  himself  and  Tallmadge.  Con- 
scious of  their  guilty  purposes,  the  timid  souls  consented  to 
Wheaton's  proposition  and  then  kept  their  pledges. 

In  the  meantime.  Van  Buren's  confidence  in  the  weakness 
of  the  Adams-Clay  men  was  never  for  a  moment  shaken.  Of 
the  thirty-nine  Clay  supporters  in  the  Legislature,  Craw- 
ford only  needed  sixteen ;  and  these,  Samuel  Young  and  his 
Clay  friends,  had  promised  to  deliver.    There  is  no  evidence 


340  VAN  BUKEN  ENCOUNTERS  WEED    [Chap.  xxx. 

that  Van  Buren  had  any  knowledge  of  Weed's  management 
at  this  time;  it  so  happened,  by  design  or  by  accident,  that 
in  their  long  careers  they  never  met  but  once,  and  then,  not 
until  after  Van  Buren  had  retired  from  the  White  House. 
But  the  Senator  knew  that  some  hand  had  struck  him,  and 
struck  him  hard,  when  Lieutenant-Governor  Root  drew  from 
the  box  the  first  union  ballot.  Instead  of  reading  it,  Root 
involuntarily  exclaimed,  ''A  printed  split  ticket."  Thereupon 
Senator  Keyes  of  Jefferson  County,  sprang  to  his  feet,  and, 
in  a  loud  voice,  shouted,  ''Treason,  by  God!"  In  the  con- 
fusion, Root  was  about  to  vacate  the  speaker's  chair  and  re- 
turn with  the  senators  to  their  chamber,  when  James  Tall- 
madge,  in  a  stentorian  voice,  called  for  order.  "I  demand, 
under  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,"  he  said,  "under  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  American  people,  that 
this  joint  meeting  of  the  two  houses  of  the  Legislature  shall 
not  be  interrupted  in  the  discharge  of  a  high  duty  and  a 
sacred  trust."**  This  settled  it.  The  count  went  on,  but,  so 
nearly  were  the  parties  divided  that  only  thirty-two  electors, 
and  these  on  the  union  ticket,  received  votes  enough  to  elect 
them.  On  the  second  ballot,  four  Crawford  electors  were 
chosen.  ''Had  our  secret  transpired  before  the  first  ballot," 
says  Weed,  ''such  was  the  power  of  the  Regency  over  two  or 
three  timid  men,  that  the  whole  Crawford  ticket  would  have 
been  elected."^** 

Writing  without  full  information  of  the  agreement  made 
in  the  secret  caucus,  Hammond^^  intimates  that  the  Adams 
men  did  not  keep  faith  with  the  Clay  men,  since  the  four 
votes  taken  from  Clay  and  given  to  Crawford  on  the  second 
ballot  made  Crawford,  instead  of  Clay,  a  candidate  in  the 
national  House  of  Representatives.  Other  writers  have  fol- 
lowed this  opinion,  charging  the  Adams  managers  with  hav- 
ing played  foul  with  the  Kentucky  statesman.  But  Weed 
and  his  associates  did  nothing  of  the  kind.    The  agreement 

^  AtitoMography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  127.  ^'>  Ibid.,  p.  127. 

"  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  Political  History  of  New  York,  p.  177. 


J 


1825]  A  CLOSE  CONTEST  341 

was  that  Clay  should  have  seven  electoral  votes  from  Nejv 
York,  provided  he  carried  Louisiana,  but  as  Jackson  carried 
that  State,  it  left  the  Adams  men  free  to  give  all  their  votes 
to  the  New  Englander.  What  would  have  happened  had 
Clay  carried  Louisiana  is  not  so  clear,  for  Weed  admits  that 
up  to  the  time  news  came  that  Louisiana  had  gone  for  Jack- 
son, he  was  unable  to  find  a  single  Adams  elector  who  would 
consent  to  vote  for  Clay,  even  to  save  his  friends  and  his 
party  from  dishonour. 

The  failure  of  the  people  to  elect  a  President  in  1824,  and 
the  choice  of  John  Quincy  Adams  by  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, are  among  the  most  widely  known  events  in  our  po- 
litical history.  New  York  remained,  throughout,  the  storm- 
centre  of  excitement.  After  a  large  majority  of  its  presiden- 
tial electors  had  declared  for  Adams,  thus  throwing  the  elec- 
tion into  Congress,  the  result  still  depended  upon  the  vote  of 
its  closely  divided  delegation  in  the  House.  Of  the  thirty- 
four  congressmen,  seventeen  favoured  Adams,  sixteen  op- 
posed him,  and  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  was  doubtful.  The 
latter's  action,  therefore,  became  of  the  utmost  importance, 
since,  if  he  voted  against  Adams,  it  would  tie  the  New  York 
delegation  and  exclude  it  from  the  count,  thus  giving  Adams 
twelve  States  instead  of  the  necessary  thirteen,  and  making^ 
his  election  on  a  second  ballot  even  more  doubtful.  This  con- 
dition revived  the  hopes  of  Van  Buren  and  gave  Clinton  a 
chance  to  work  for  Jackson. 

Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,^^  born  in  1764,  had  had  a  con*- 
spicuous  and  in  some  respects  a  distinguished  career.  He 
was  the  fifth  in  lineal  descent  from  Killian  van  Rensselaer, 
the  wealthy  pearl  merchant  of  Amsterdam,  known  as  the  first 
Patroon,  whose  great  manor,  purchased  in  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth    century,  originally    included    the    present 

^- Thurlow  Weed,  in  his  Autfjbiographij,  says  (p.  461):  "Of  his 
estimable  private  character,  and  of  the  bounties  and  blessings  he 
scattered  in  all  directions,  or  of  the  pervading  atmosphere  of  happi- 
ness and  gratitude  that  his  lifelong  goodness  created,  I  need  not 
speak,  for  they  are  widely  known  and  well  remembered." 


342  VAN  BUEEN  ENCOUNTEKS  WEED    [Chap.  xxx. 

counties  of  Albany,  Rensselaer,  and  Columbia.  Stephen  in- 
herited the  larger  part  of  this  territory,  and,  with  it,  the  old 
manor  house  at  Albany.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of 
Philip  Livingston,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  his  wife  a  daughter  of  Philip  Schuyler.  This 
made  him  the  brother-in-law  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 

Stephen  began  filling  offices  as  soon  as  he  was  old  enough. 
For  several  years  he  served  in  the  Assembly  and  in  the  Sen- 
ate. In  1795,  he  became  lieutenant-governor  for  two  terms. 
George  Clinton  defeated  him  for  governor  in  1801 ;  but  be- 
fore Jay's  term  expired,  he  made  him  commander  of  the 
State's  cavalry.  In  1812,  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  with 
England,  Governor  Tompkins  promoted  him  to  be  chief  of 
the  state  militia — an  office  which  he  resigned  in  disgust  after 
the  disgraceful  defeat  at  Queenstown  Heights  on  the  Niagara 
frontier,  because  his  troops  refused  to  follow  him.  In  1810, 
he  became  a  member  of  the  first  canal  commission,  of  which 
he  was  president  for  fifteen  years.  Later,  he  served  as  a 
regent  and  chancellor  of  the  State  University,  and,  in  1824, 
established  the  Troy  Polytechnical  Institute.  It  was  at  this 
time  he  went  to  Congress,  and  while  serving  his  first  term, 
held  the  casting  vote  that  would  elect  a  President  of  the 
United  States. 

Rensselaer  had  been  a  Federalist  of  the  Hamilton  school, 
and,  although  the  Federal  party  had  practically  ceased  to 
■exist,  he  owed  his  election  to  its  former  members.  This  was 
sufficient  reason  to  believe  that  he  would  not  support  Van 
Buren's  candidate,  and  that  his  predilections  would  incline 
him  to  take  a  President  from  the  North,  provided  Adams 
was  persona  grata  to  the  old  Federalists.  The  latter  had 
never  quite  forgiven  Adams  for  deserting  them ;  and,  having 
been  long  excluded  from  power,  they  were  anxious  to  know 
whether,  if  elected,  he  would  continue  to  proscribe  them. 
Finally,  when  Daniel  Webster  removed  their  doubts  on  this 
subject.  Van  Rensselaer  still  hesitated  on  account  of  Clinton. 
He  had  a  strong  liking  for  the  Governor.  They  had  served 
as  canal  commissioners,  and  their  association  in  the  great 


I 


1824]  STEPHEN  VAN  KENSSELAER  343 

work,  then  nearing  completion,  filled  him  with  admiration 
for  the  indomitable  spirit  exhibited  by  the  distinguished 
canal  builder.  His  probable  action,  therefore,  kept  men  busy 
guessing.  The  suspense  resembled  that  of  the  Tilden  Hayes 
controversy  of  1877,  for  the  result  meant  much  to  the  several 
factions  in  the  State.  Crawford's  election  would  continue 
Yan  Buren  and  the  Regency  in  power ;  the  choice  of  Jackson 
must  make  Clinton  the  supreme  dispenser  of  federal  patron- 
age; and  Adams'  success  meant  a  better  opportunity  for 
Thurlow  Weed  to  form  a  new  party. 

Van  Rensselaer  did  not  talk.  Experience  had  accustomed 
him  to  outside  pressure,  and  he  now  kept  his  head  cool  when 
Clinton  and  other  influential  New  Yorkers  overwhelmed 
him  with  praters  and  petitions.  At  last,  on  the  morning  of 
February  9,  1825,  he  walked  leisurely  into  the  hall  of  the 
House  and  took  his  seat  with  the  New  York  delegation. 
Every  member  of  the  House  was  in  his  place,  except  one  who 
was  sick  in  his  lodgings.  The  galleries  were  packed  with 
spectators,  and  the  areas  thronged  with  judges,  ambassadors, 
governors,  and  other  privileged  persons.  After  the  formal 
announcement,  that  no  one  had  received  a  majority  of  elec- 
toral votes  for  the  Presidency,  and  that  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives must  elect  a  President  from  the  three  highest 
candidates,  the  roll  was  called  by  States,  and  the  vote  of 
each  State  deposited  in  a  box  by  itself.  Then  the  tellers, 
Daniel  Webster  and  John  Randolph,  opened  the  boxes  and 
counted  the  ballots. 

The  report  of  the  tellers  surprised  almost  every  one.  A 
long  contest  had  been  expected.  Friends  of  Crawford  hoped 
"the  House  would  weary  itself  with  many  ballots  and  end  the 
affair  by  electing  him.  But  the  announcement  gave  Craw- 
ord  only  four  States,  Jackson  seven,  and  Adams  thirteen — 
a  majority  over  all.  Then  it  was  known  that  Van  Rensse- 
laer's vote  had  given  New  York  to  Adams,  and  that  New 
Y'ork's  vote  had  made  Adams  the  President.  For  the  mo- 
ment, Van  Buren  was  checkmated,  and  he  knew  it. 


( 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
CLINTON'S  COALITION  WITH  VAN  BUREN 

1825-1828 

The  election  of  John  Quincy  Adams  as  President  of  the 
United  States  staggered  the  Regency  and  seriously  threat- 
ened the  influence  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  It  was  likely  to 
close  the  portals  of  the  White  House  to  him,  and  to  open  the 
doors  of  custom-houses  and  post-oflSces  to  his  opponents. 
More  injurious  than  this,  it  established  new  party  align- 
ments and  gave  great  prestige  at  least  to  one  man  before  un- 
recognised as  a  political  factor.  The  successful  combination 
of  the  Adams  and  Clay  electors  was  the  talk  of  the  State; 
and,  although  Thurlow  Weed's  dominant  part  in  the  game 
did  not  appear  on  the  surface.  Van  Buren  and  every  intelli- 
gent political  worker  understood  that  some  strong  hand  had 
been  at  work. 

The  absence  of  available  candidates,  around  whom  he 
could  rally  his  shattered  forces,  cast  the  deepest  shadow 
across  Van  Buren's  pathway.  He  had  staked  much  upon 
Samuel  Young's  candidacy  for  governor,  and  everything 
upon  William  H.  Crawford's  candidacy  for  President.  But 
Young  fell  under  Clinton's  overwhelming  majority,  and 
Crawford  exhibited  a  weakness  that  surprised  even  his  in- 
veterate opponents.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  Craw- 
ford had  carried  but  four  out  of  the  twenty-four  States.  This 
seemed  to  leave  Van  Buren  without  a  man  to  turn  to ;  while 
Clinton's  early  declaration  for  Andrew  Jackson  gave  him  the 
key  to  the  situation.  Although  Jackson,  for  whom  eleven 
States  had  given  an  electoral  plurality,  received  the  vote  of 
but  seven  States  in  the  House,  the  contest  had  narrowed  to 

344 


I 


1825]  WATER  FILLS   THE  ERIE  CANAL  345 

a  choice  between  Adams  and  himself,  making  the  popular 
General  the  coming  man.  Besides,  Clinton  was  very  active 
on  his  own  account.  On  the  26th  of  October,  1825,  the  waters 
of  Lake  Erie  were  let  into  the  Erie  canal,  and  navigation 
opened  from  the  lake  to  the  Hudson.  It  was  a  great  day 
for  the  Governor.  A  popular  jubilation  extended  from  Buf- 
falo to  New  York,  and,  amidst  the  roar  of  artillery  and  the 
eloquence  of  many  orators,  the  praises  of  the  distinguished 
canal  builder  sounded  throughout  the  State  and  nation.  To 
a  man  of  intellect  far  lower  than  that  of  Martin  Van  Buren, 
it  must  have  been  obvious  that  forces  were  at  work  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  people  which  could  not  be  controlled  by 
Regency  edicts  or  party  traditions. 

But  the  Kinderhook  statesman  did  not  despair.  In  the 
election  to  occur  in  November  he  desired  simply  to  strengthen 
himself  in  the  Legislature;  and,  with  consummate  skill,  he 
sought  to  carry  Republican  districts.  National  issues  were 
to  be  avoided.  So  ably  did  Edwin  Croswell,  the  wise  and 
sagacious  editor  of  the  Albany  Argus,  lead  the  way,  that  not 
a  word  was  written  or  spoken  against  the  national  adminis- 
tration. This  cunning  play  renewed  the  old  charge  of  "non- 
committalism,"^  which  for  many  years  was  used  to  charac- 

' "  'I  heard  a  great  deal  about  Mr.  Van  Buren,'  said  Andrew  Jack- 
son, who  occupied  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate  with  him, 
'especially  about  his  non-committalism.  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
I  would  take  an  early  opportunity  to  hear  him  and  judge  for  my- 
self. One  day  an  important  subject  was  under  debate,  I  noticed 
that  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  taking  notes  while  one  of  the  senators  was 
speaking.  I  judged  from  this  that  he  intended  to  reply,  and  I  de- 
termined to  be  in  my  seat  when  he  spoke.  His  turn  came;  and  he 
arose  and  made  a  clear,  straightforward  argument,  which,  to  my 
mind,  disposed  of  the  whole  subject.  I  turned  to  my  colleague. 
Major  Beaton,  who  sat  next  to  me.  '  Major,'  I  said,  'is  there  anj'- 
thing  non-committal  about  that?'  'No,  sir,'  said  the  Major,"^ 
Edward  M.  Shepard,  Life  of  Martin  Tan  Buren,  p.  151. 

"In  Van  Buren's  senatorial  speeches  there  is  nothing  to  justify 
the  charge  of  'non-committalism'  so  much  made  against  him. 
When  he  spoke  at  all  he  spoke  explicitly;  and  he  plainly,  though 
without    acerbity,    exhibited   his   likes    and    dislikes.    Van    Buren 


346  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUREN      [Chap.  xxxi. 

terise  Van  Buren's  policy  and  action ;  but  it  in  no  wise  dis- 
concerted his  plans,  or  discovered  his  intentions.  All  he 
wanted  now  was  the  Legislature,  and  while  the  whole  State 
was  given  up  to  general  rejoicing  over  the  completion  of  the 
canal,  the  Regencj'  leaders,  under  the  direction  of  the  astute 
Senator,  practised  the  tactics  which  Van  Buren  had  learned 
from  Aaron  Burr,  and  which  have  come  to  be  known  in  later 
days  as  a  ''political  still-hunt."  When  the  contest  ended, 
the  Regency  Republicans  had  both  branches  of  the  Legisla- 
ture by  a  safe  working  majority.  This  result,  so  overwhelm- 
ing, so  sudden,  and  so  entirely  unexpected,  made  Clinton's 
friends  believe  that  his  end  had  come. 

Van  Buren,  however,  had  broader  views.  He  knew  that 
Andrew  Jackson,  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  had  lit- 
tle standing  in  1824  until  Pennsylvania  took  him  up,  and  he 
now  believed  that  if  New  York  supported  him,  with  the 
Keystone  State,  in  1828,  the  hero  of  New  Orleans  must  suc- 
ceed Adams.  To  elect  him  President,  therefore,  became  the 
purpose  of  Van  Buren's  political  life ;  and,  as  the  first  step 
in  that  direction,  he  determined  to  make  DeWitt  Clinton 
his  friend.  The  Governor  was  Jackson's  champion.  He  had 
declared  for  him  in  the  earlv  days  of  the  Tennesseean's  can- 
didacy, and  to  reach  him  through  such  an  outspoken  ally 
would  give  Van  Buren  an  open  way  to  the  hero's  heart. 

Accordingly,  Van  Buren  insisted  upon  a  conciliatory 
course.  He  sent  Benjamin  Knower,  the  state  treasurer  and 
now  a  member  of  the  Regency,  to  inform  Clinton  that,  if  the 
Van  Buren  leaders  could  control  their  party,  he  should  have 
no  opposition  at  next  year's  gubernatorial  election.  Clinton 
and  Bucktail,  like  oil  and  water,  had  refused  to  combine 
until  this  third  ingredient,  that  Van  Buren  knew  so  well  how 
to  add,  completed  the  mixture.   Whether  the  coalition  would 

scrupulously  observed  the  amenities  of  debate.  He  was  uniformly 
courteous  towards  adversaries;  and  the  calm  self-control  saved  him, 
as  some  great  orators  were  not  saved,  from  a  descent  to  the  asper- 
sion of  motive  so  common  and  futile  in  political  debate." — Ibid., 
p.  152. 


1826]  CONCILIATORY  METHODS  347 

have  brought  Clinton  the  reward  of  success  or  the  penalty  of 
failure  must  forever  remain  a  secret,  for  the  Governor  did 
not  live  long  enough  to  solve  the  question.  But  in  the  game 
of  politics  he  had  never  been  a  match  for  Van  Buren.  He 
was  a  statesman  without  being  a  politician. 

Just  now,  however,  Clinton  and  Van  Buren,  like  lovers 
who  had  quarrelled  and  made  up,  could  not  be  too  responsive 
to  each  other's  wishes.  To  confirm  the  latter's  good  inten- 
tions, the  Regency  senators  promptly  approved  Clinton's 
nomination  of  Samuel  Jones  for  chancellor  in  place  of 
Nathan  Sanford,  who  was  now  chosen  United  States  senator 
to  succeed  Rufus  King.  It  was  bitter  experience.  The  ap- 
pointment rudely  ignored  the  rule,  uniformly  and  wisely  ad- 
hered to  since  the  formation  of  a  state  government,  to  pro- 
mote the  chief  justice. 

Besides,  Jones  had  been  a  pronounced  Federalist  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  Moreover,  he  was  a  relative  of  the 
Governor's  wife,  and  to  some  men,  even  in  that  day,  nepot- 
ism was  an  offence.  But  he  was  an  eminent  lawyer,  the  son 
of  the  distinguished  first  comptroller,  and  to  make  their 
consideration  of  the  Governor's  wishes  more  evident,  the 
senators  confirmed  the  nomination  without  sending  it  to  a 
committee. 

A  more  remarkable  illustration  of  Van  Buren's  con- 
ciliatory policy  occurred  in  the  confirmation  of  James 
McKnown  as  recorder  of  Albany.  McKnown  was  a  bit- 
ter Clintonian.  It  was  he  who,  at  the  Albany  meet- 
ing, so  eloquentl.y  protested  against  the  removal  of 
Clinton  as  a  canal  commissioner,  denouncing  it  as 
''the  offspring  of  that  malignant  and  insatiable  spirit 
of  political  proscription  which  has  already  so  deeply  stained 
the  annals  of  the  State,"  and  the  perpetrators  as  "utterly 
unworthy  of  public  confidence."^  But  the  Senate  confirmed 
him  without  a  dissenting  vote.  Later,  when  a  vacancy  oc- 
curred in  the  judgeship  of  the  eighth  circuit  by  the  resigna- 
tion of  William  B.  Rochester,  it  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  the 

^  Jabez  D.  Hammond,  PoUtic-al  History  of  New  York,  Vol.  2,  p.  164. 


348  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUREN      [Chap.  xxxi. 

coalition  must  break.  The  Regency  wanted  Herman  J.  Red- 
field,  one  of  the  seventeen  senators  whose  opposition  to  the 
electoral  bill  had  caused  his  defeat;  but  the  eighth  district 
was  Clinton's  stronghold,  and  if  he  nominated  Redfleld,  the 
Governor  argued,  it  would  deprive  him  of  strength  and  pres- 
tige, and  seriously  weaken  the  cause  of  Jackson,  The  Re- 
gency, accustomed  to  remain  faithful  to  the  men  who  in- 
curred popular  odium  for  being  faithful  to  them,  found  it 
difficult,  either  to  reconcile  the  conditions  with  their  wishes, 
or  to  compromise  upon  any  one  else.  Nevertheless,  on  the 
last  day  of  the  session,  through  the  active  and  judicious 
agency  of  Benjamin  Knower,  John  Birdsall  of  Chautauqua 
County,  a  friend  of  Clinton,  was  nominated  and  confirmed. 
In  the  meantime.  Van  Buren  had  returned  to  his  seat  in 
Congress.  He  entered  the  United  States  Senate  in  1821,  and, 
although  observing  the  decorum  expected  of  a  new  member 
of  that  body,  he  displaj^ed  powers  of  mind  that  distinguished 
him  as  a  senator  of  more  than  ordinary  ability.  He  now  be- 
came a  parliamentary  orator,  putting  himself  at  the  head  of 
an  anti-Administration  faction,  and  developing  the  tact  and 
management  of  a  great  parliamentary  leader.  He  had  made 
up  his  mind  that  nothing  less  than  a  large  and  comprehen- 
sive diflference  between  the  two  wings  of  the  Republican 
party  would  be  of  any  real  use ;  so  he  arraigned  the  Admin- 
istration, with  great  violence,  as  un-Republican  and  Feder- 
alistic.  He  took  a  definite  stand  against  internal  improve- 
ments by  the  United  States  government;  he  led  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  appointment  of  American  representatives  to  the 
Congress  of  Panama,  treating  the  proposed  mission  as  un- 
constitutional and  dangerous;  and  he  charged  the  Admin- 
istration with  returning  to  the  practices  of  the  Federalist 
party,  to  which  Adams  originally  belonged,  declaring  that 
the  presidential  choice  of  1825  was  not  only  the  restoration 
of  the  men  of  1798,  but  of  the  principles  of  that  day ;  that 
the  spirit  of  encroachment  had  become  more  wary,  but  not 
more  honest ;  and  that  the  system  then  was  coercion,  now  it 
was  seduction.    He  classed  the  famous  alien  and  sedition 


1826]  ORGANISING   A   NEW  PARTY  349 

laws,  of  the  elder  Adams,  with  the  bold  avowal  of  the 
younger  Adams  that  it  belonged  to  the  President  alone  to 
decide  upon  the  propriety  of  a  foreign  mission.  Thus,  he 
associated  the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams  with 
the  administration  of  his  father,  insisting  that  if  the  earlier 
one  deserved  the  retribution  of  a  Republican  victory,  the 
latter  one  deserved  a  similar  fate. 

Van  Buren's  language  had  the  courteous  dignity  that  uni- 
formly characterised  his  speeches.  He  charged  no  personal 
wrong-doing ;  he  insinuated  no  base  motives ;  he  rejected  the 
unfounded  story  of  the  sale  of  the  Presidency  to  Adams ;  he 
voted  for  Clay's  confirmation  as  secretary  of  state,  and,  as  a 
member  of  the  senatorial  committee,  he  welcomed  the  new 
President  upon  his  inauguration ;  but  from  the  moment  John 
Quincy  Adams  became  President,  the  Senator  from  New 
York  led  the  opposition  to  his  administration  with  the  as- 
tuteness of  a  great  parliamentary  leader,  determined  to  cre- 
ate a  neAV  party  in  American  politics.  Van  Buren  also  had 
some  strong  allies.  With  him,  voted  Findlay  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Holmes  of  Maine,  Woodbury  of  New  Hampshire, 
Diekerson  of  New  Jersey,  and  Kane  of  Illinois,  besides 
twelve  Southern  senators.  But,  from  the  outset,  he  was  the 
leader.  His  speeches,  smooth  and  seldom  impassioned,  w^ere 
addressed  to  the  intellect  rather  than  to  the  feelings.  He 
was  the  master  of  the  art  of  making  a  perfectly  clear  state- 
ment of  the  most  complicated  case,  and  of  defending  his 
measures,  point  by  point,  with  never-failing  readiness  and 
skill  throughout  the  most  perplexing  series  of  debates.  He 
talked  to  make  converts,  appealing  to  his  colleagues  with  a 
directness  well  calculated  to  bring  to  his  side  a  majority  of 
the  waverers. 

Van  Buren's  opposition  to  the  Adams  administration  has 
been  called  factious  and  unpatriotic.  It  was  certainly  active 
and  continuous,  and,  perhaps,  now  and  then,  somewhat  more 
unscrupulous  than  senatorial  opposition  is  in  our  own  time; 
but  his  policy  was,  unquestionably,  the  policy  of  more  mod- 
ern political  parties.     His  tactics  created  an  organisation 


350  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUKEN      [Chap.  xxxi. 

which,  inside  and  outside  of  the  Senate,  was  to  work  un- 
ceasingly, with  tongue  and  pen,  to  discredit  everything  done 
by  the  men  in  office  and  to  turn  public  opinion  against  them. 
It  was  a  part  of  his  plan  not  only  to  watch  with  jealous  care 
all  the  acts  of  the  Administration,  but  to  make  the  most  of 
every  opportunity  that  could  be  used  to  turn  them  out  of  of- 
fice; and  when  the  Senate  debate  ended,  the  modern  Demo- 
cratic party  had  been  formed.  Adams  recorded  in  his  now 
famous  diary  that  Van  Buren  made  "a  great  efifort  to  com- 
bine the  discordant  elements  of  the  Crawford  and  Jackson 
and  Calhoun  men  into  a  united  opposition  against  the  Ad- 
ministration." He  might  have  added,  also,  that  the  debate 
distinctly  marked  Van  Buren's  position  in  history  as  a  party- 
maker  in  the  second  great  division  of  parties  in  America. 

Van  Buren's  coalition  with  DeWitt  Clinton,  however, 
came  perilously  near  prostrating  them  both.  At  their  state 
convention,  held  at  Utica,  in  September,  1826,  the  Clinton- 
ians  and  the  People's  party  renominated  Clinton  for  gov- 
ernor. In  the  following  month,  the  Bucktails  met  at  Herki- 
mer, and,  if  Van  Buren  could  have  had  his  way,  the  conven- 
tion would  have  indorsed  Clinton.  Finding  such  action  in- 
advisable, however.  Van  Buren  secured  the  nomination  of 
William  B.  Rochester,  on  the  theory  that  he  was  a  good 
enough  candidate  to  be  beaten.  Rochester  was  not  a  man 
of  marked  ability.  He  had  done  nothing  to  make  himself 
known  throughout  the  State ;  he  did  not  even  favour  a  state 
road  through  the  southern  tier  of  counties.  He  was  simply  a 
lawyer  of  fair  attainments  who  had  served  a  term  in  the 
Legislature,  one  in  Congress,  and  two  years  as  a  circuit 
judge,  a  position  from  which  he  resigned,  in  1825,  to  become 
minister  to  Panama. 

But  Rochester  proved  vastly  more  formidable  as  a  candi- 
date for  governor  than  the  Van  Buren  leaders  anticipated. 
It  became  well  known  that  he  was  a  supporter  of  the  Adams 
administration,  and  that  Henry  Clay  regarded  him  with 
favour.  Indeed,  it  was  through  the  latter's  personal  and  po- 
litical friendship  that  he  secured  the  mission  to  Panama. 


1826]  A  NAKROW  ESCAPE  351 

Thus,  the  feeling  began  to  obtain  that  Rochester,  although, 
the  nominee  of  the  Regency  party,  more  nearly  represented 
the  interests  and  principles  of  the  Adams  administration 
than  DeWitt  Clinton,  an  avowed  Jackson  man,  who  had 
formed  a  coalition  with  Van  Buren.  For  this  reason,  Peter 
B.  Porter,  an  ardent  admirer  of  Clay,  and  now  a  member 
of  the  People's  party,  entered  with  spirit  into  the  campaign, 
appealing  to  the  Clintonians,  a  large  majority  of  whom 
favoured  Adams,  to  resent  Clinton's  deal  with  Jackson's 
friends,  and  vote  for  Rochester,  whose  election  would  insure 
the  success  of  the  President,  and  bring  credit  to  the  people 
of  the  western  counties,  already'  ambitious  k)  give  the  State 
a  governor.  This  potent  appeal  was  taken  up  throughout  the 
State,  influencing  many  Clintonians  to  support  Rochester, 
and  holding  in  line  scores  of  Bucktails  who  favoured  Adams. 

It  was  a  critical  moment  for  Van  Buren.  He  was  not  only 
a  candidate  for  re-election  to  the  United  States  Senate,  but 
he  had  staked  all  upon  the  overthrow  of  the  Adams  adminis- 
tration. Yet,  the  election  of  his  party's  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor would  in  all  probability  overthrow  the  Clinton-Van 
Buren  coalition,  giving  the  vote  of  the  State  to  the  Presi- 
dent, and  possibly  defeat  his  own  re-election.  It  was  a  sin- 
gular political  mix-up. 

Van  Buren  had  hoped  to  exclude  from  the  campaign  all 
national  issues,  as  he  succeeded  in  doing  the  year  before. 
But  the  friends  of  Clay  and  Adams  could  not  be  hoodwinked. 
The  canvass  also  developed  combinations  that  began  telling 
hard  upon  Van  Buren's  party  loyalty.  Mordecai  M.  Noah, 
an  ardent  supporter  of  Van  Buren,  and  editor  of  the  New 
York  Enquirer^  came  out  openly  for  Clinton.  For  years, 
Noah  had  been  Clinton's  most  bitter  opponent.  He  opposed 
the  canal,  he  ridiculed  its  champion,  and  he  lampooned  its 
supporters;  yet  he  now  swallowed  the  prejudices  of  a  life- 
time and  indorsed  the  man  he  had  formerly  despised.  Van 
Buren,  it  may  safely  be  said,  was  at  heart  quite  as  devoted 
a  supporter  of  the  Governor,  since  the  latter's  re-election 
would  be  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  his  own  personal  in- 


I 


352  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUKEN      [Chap.  xxxi. 

terests;  but  whatever  his  defects  of  character,  and  however 
lacking  he  may  have  been  in  an  exalted  sense  of  principle, 
Van  Buren  appeared  to  be  sincere  in  his  devotion  to  Roches- 
ter. This  was  emphasised  by  the  support  of  the  Albany 
Argus  and  other  leading  Regency  papers. 

Nevertheless,  the  election  returns  furnished  ample 
grounds  for  suspicion.  Steuben  County,  then  a  Regency 
stronghold,  gave  Clinton  over  one  thousand  majority.  Other 
counties  of  that  section  did  proportionately  as  well.  It  was 
explained  that  this  territory  would  naturally  support  Clin- 
ton who  had  insisted  in  his  message  that  the  central  and 
northern  counties,  having  benefited  by  the  Erie  and  Cham- 
plain  canals,  ought  to  give  Steuben  and  the  southern  tier  a 
public  highway.  But  William  B.  Rochester  went  to  his 
watery  grave^  thirteen  years  afterward  with  the  belief  that 
Van  Buren  and  his  confidential  friends  did  not  act  in  good 
faith. 

With  the  help  of  the  state  road  counties,  however,  Clinton 
had  a  narrow  escape ;  the  returns  gave  him  only  3650  major- 
ity.* This  margin  appeared  the  more  wonderful  when  con- 
trasted with  the  vote  of  Nathaniel  Pitcher,  candidate  for 
lieutenant-governor  on  the  Rochester  ticket,  who  received 
4182  majority.    "Clinton  luck!"  was  the  popular  comment. 

The  closeness  of  the  result  prompted  the  friends  of  the 
President  to  favour  Rochester  for  United  States  senator  to 
succeed  Van  Buren,  whose  term  expired  on  March  4,  1827. 
Several  of  the  Adams  assemblymen  acted  with  the  Regency 
party,  and  it  was  hoped  that  through  them  a  winning  com- 
bination might  be  made.  But  Van  Buren  had  not  been 
sleeping.  He  knew  his  strength,  and  with  confidence  he  re- 
turned to  Washington  to  renew  his  attacks  upon  the  Adminis- 

'  Rochester  was  lost  off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina,  on  June  15, 
1838,  by  the  explosion  of  a  boiler  on  the  steamer  Pvlaski,  bound 
from  Charleston  to  Baltimore.     Of  150  passeng-ers  only  50  survived. 

*  Clinton's  vote  was  99,785— a  falling  off  of  3,667  from  1824,  while 
Rochester's  was  96,1135,  an  increase  of  9,042  over  Young's  vote. — 
Civil  List,  State  of  New  York,  1887,  p.  166. 


1828]  DEATH  OF  DeWITT  CLINTON  353 

tration.  When,  finally,  the  election  occurred,  he  had  a  larger 
majority  than  sanguine  friends  anticipated.  Three  Clinton- 
ians  in  the  Senate  and  two  in  the  Assembly,  recognising  the 
coalition  of  Van  Buren  and  Clinton,  cast  their  votes  for  the 
former.  In  thanking  the  members  of  the  Legislature  for  this 
renewed  expression  of  confidence.  Van  Buren  spoke  of  the 
^'gratifying  unanimity"  of  their  action,  declaring  that  it 
should  be  his  "constant  and  zealous  endeavour  to  protect  the 
remaining  rights  reserved  to  the  States  by  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution ;  to  restore  those  of  which  they  have  been  divested 
by  construction ;  and  to  promote  the  interests  and  honour  of 
our  common  country." 

Thus,  in  much  less  than  two  years,  Van  Buren  easily 
retrieved  all,  and  more,  than  he  had  lost  by  the  election  of 
Clinton  and  the  defeat  of  Crawford.  His  position  was 
singularly  advantageous.  Whatever  happened,  he  was  almost 
sure  to  gain.  He  stood  with  Clinton,  with  Jackson,  and  with 
a  party  drilled  and  disciplined  better  than  regular  troops.  In 
his  biography  of  Andrew  Jackson,  James  Parton  says  of  Van 
Buren  at  this  time:  ''His  hand  was  full  of  cards,  and  all 
his  cards  were  trumps."^  Andrew  Jackson,  who  had  been 
watching  his  career,  said  one  day  to  a  young  New  Yorker  : 
"I  am  no  politician ;  but  if  I  were  a  politician,  I  would  be 
a  New  York  politician."'' 

Van  Buren's  advantage,  however,  great  as  it  was,  did  not 
end  with  his  re-election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  One 
after  another,  the  men  who  stood  between  him  and  the  object 
of  his  ambition  had  gradually  disappeared.  Ambrose  Spen- 
cer was  no  longer  on  the  bench,  James  Tallmadge  had  run 
his  political  course,  and  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  was  in  his 
grave.  Only  DeWitt  Clinton  was  left,  and  on  February  11, 
1828,  death  very  suddenly  struck  him  down.  Stalwart  in 
form  and  tremendous  in  will  power,  few  dreamed  that  he 
had  any  malady,  much  less  that  death  was  shadowing  him. 
He  was  in  his  fifty-ninth  year. 

*  James  Parton,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  Vol.  3,  p.  131. 
^Ibid.,  p.  136. 


354  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUKEN     [Chap.  xxxi. 

Of  DeWitt  Clinton  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  "his  mourn- 
ers were  two  hosts — his  friends  and  his  foes."  Everywhere, 
regardless  of  party,  marks  of  the  highest  respect  and  deepest 
grief  were  evinced.  The  Legislature  voted  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars to  his  four  minor  children,  an  amount  equal  to  the 
salary  of  a  canal  commissioner  during  the  time  he  had  served 
without  pay.  Indeed,  nothing  was  left  undone  or  unsaid 
w^hich  would  evidence  veneration  for  his  memory  and  sorrow 
for  his  loss.  He  had  lived  to  complete  his  work  and  to  enjoy 
the  reward  of  a  great  achievement.  Usually  benefactors  of 
the  people  are  not  so  fortunate;  their  halo,  if  it  comes  at  all, 
generally  forms  long  after  death.  But  Clinton  seemed  to  be 
the  creature  of  timely  political  accidents.  The  presentation 
of  his  canal  scheme  had  made  him  governor  on  July  1,  1817 ; 
and  he  represented  the  State  when  ground  was  broken  at 
Rome  on  July  4 ;  his  removal  as  canal  commissioner  made 
him  governor  again  in  1825 ;  and  he  represented  the  State  at 
the  completion  of  the  work.  On  both  occasions,  he  received 
the  homage  of  the  entire  people,  not  only  as  champion  of  the 
canal,  but  as  the  head  of  the  Commonwealth  for  which  he 
had  done  so  much. 

There  were  those  who  thought  the  time  of  his  death  fortu- 
nate for  his  fame,  since  former  opponents  were  softened  and 
former  friends  had  not  fallen  away.  An  impression  also  ob- 
tained that  little  was  left  him  politically  to  live  for.  New 
conditions  and  new  men  were  springing  up.  As  a  strict  con- 
structionist of  the  Federal  Constitution,  with  a  leaning 
toward  states'  rights,  he  could  not  have  followed  Clintonians 
into  the  Whig  party  soon  to  be  formed,  nor  would  he 
have  been  at  home  among  the  leaders  of  the  Jackson  or  new 
Democratic  party,  who  were  unlikely  to  have  any  use  for 
him.  He  would  not  be  second  to  Van  Buren,  and  Van  Buren 
would  not  suffer  him  to  interfere  with  the  promotion  of  his 
own  career.  It  is  possible  Van  Buren  might  have  sup- 
ported him  for  governor  in  1828,  but  he  would  have  had  no 
hesitation  in  playing  his  own  part  regardless  of  him.    Had 


I 


1828]  POOR   AND   PURE  355 

Clinton  insisted,  so  much  the  worse  for  Clinton.  Of  the  two 
men,  Van  Buren  possessed  the  advantage.  He  had  less  genius 
and  possibly  less  self-reliance,  but  in  other  respects — in  tact, 
in  prudence,  in  self-control,  in  address — indeed,  in  every- 
thing that  makes  for  party  leadership,  Van  Buren  easily  held 
the  mastery. 

Clinton's  career  was  absolutely  faultless  in  two  aspects — 
as  an  honest  man,  and  a  husband,  only  praise  is  due  him. 
He  died  poor  and  pure.  Yet,  there  are  passages  in  his  his- 
tory which  evidence  great  defects.  Life  had  been  for  him  one 
long  dramatic  performance.  Many  great  men  seem  to  have  a 
suit  of  armour  in  the  form  of  coldness,  brusqueness,  or  rude- 
ness, which  they  put  on  to  meet  the  stranger,  but  which, 
when  laid  aside,  reveals  simple,  charming,  and  often  boyish 
manners.  Clinton  had  such  an  armour,  but  he  never  put 
it  off,  except  with  intimates,  and  not  then  with  any  revela- 
tion of  warmth.  He  was  cold  and  arrogant,  showing  no  def- 
erence even  to  seniors,  since  he  denied  the  existence  of  supe- 
riors. Nobody  loved  him ;  few  really  liked  him ;  and,  except 
for  his  canal  policy,  his  public  career  must  have  ended  with 
his  dismissal  from  the  New  York  mayoralty.  It  seemed  a 
question  whether  he  really  measured  up  to  the  stature  of  a 
statesman. 

Nevertheless,  the  judgment  of  posterity  is  easily  on  the 
side  of  Clinton's  greatness.  Thurlow  Weed  spoke  of  him  as  a 
great  man  with  weak  points ;  and  Van  Buren,  in  his  attract- 
ive eulogy  at  Washington,  declared  that  he  was  "greatly 
tempted  to  envy  him  his  grave  with  its  honours."  He  may 
well  have  done  so;  for,  although  Van  Buren  reached  the 
highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people,  and  is  clearly  one  of 
the  ablest  leaders  of  men  in  the  history  of  the  Empire  State, 
his  fame  does  not  rest  on  so  sure  a  foundation.  Clinton  was 
a  man  of  great  achievement.  He  was  not  a  dreamer;  nor 
merely  a  statesman  with  imagination,  grasping  the  idea  in 
its  bolder  outlines;  but,  like  a  captain  of  industry,  he  com- 
bined the  statesman  and  the  practical  man  of  affairs,  turning 


356  CLINTON  JOINS  VAN  BUKEN     [Chap.  xxxi. 

great  possibilities  into  greater  realities.  It  may  be  fairly 
said  of  him  that  his  career  made  an  era  in  the  history  of  his 
State,  and  that  in  asserting  the  great  principle  of  internal 
improvements  he  blazed  the  way  that  guided  all  future 
comers. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
VAN  BUREN  ELECTED  GOVERNOR 

1828 

In  September^  1827,  Van  Buren  permitted  the  New  York 
wing  of  the  Republican  party  to  come  out  plainly  for  Andrew 
Jackson  for  President.  The  announcement,  made  by  the  gen- 
eral committee,  which  met  in  Tammany  Hall,  declared  that 
the  Bucktails  reposed  full  confidence  in  Andrew  Jackson's 
worth,  integrity,  and  patriotism,  and  would  support  only 
those  who  favoured  him  for  President  of  the  United  States. 

Peter  B.  Sharpe,  a  Tammany  chief  of  courage,  recently 
speaker  of  the  Assembly,  voiced  a  faint  protest ;  and  later  he 
summoned  Marinus  Willet  from  his  retirement  to  preside  at 
an  opposition  meeting.  It  was,  no  doubt,  an  inspiring  sight 
to  see  this  venerable  soldier  of  the  Revolution,  who  had  won 
proud  distinction  in  that  long  and  bloody  war,  presiding  at 
an  assembly  of  his  fellow  citizens  nearly  half  a  century  after- 
ward; it  accentuated  the  fact  that  other  heroes  existed  be- 
sides the  victor  of  New  Orleans ;  but  the  Van  Buren  papers 
spoke  in  concert.  Within  a  week,  the  whole  State  understood 
that  the  election  of  1827  must  be  conducted  with  express  ref- 
erence to  the  choice  of  Jackson  in  1828. 

The  note  of  this  bugle  call,  blown  by  Edwin  Croswell,  the 
famous  editor  of  the  Albany  Argus,  resounded  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  party.  The  ablest  and  most  popular  men,  pre- 
liminary to  the  contest,  were  selected  for  legislative  places. 
Erastus  Root  was  again  nominated  in  Delaware  County; 
Robert  Emmet,  the  promising  son  of  the  distinguished 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  and  Ogden  Hoffman,  the  eloquent  and 
brilliant  son  of  Josiah  Ogden  Hoffman,  who  was  to  become 

357 


358         VAN  BUKEN  ELECTED  GOVERNOK     [Chap,  xxxii. 

the  best  criminal  lawyer  of  his  day,  found  places  on  the 
ticket  in  New  York  City ;  Nathaniel  P.  Tallmadge,  heretofore 
^u  opponent  of  the  Regency,  but  now  to  begin  a  public  career 
which  finally  placed  him  in  the  United  States  Senate  for 
twelve  years,  was  brought  out  in  Dutchess  County ;  and  Ben- 
jamin F.  Butler,  whose  revision  of  the  state  statutes  had 
made  him  exceedingly  popular,  accepted  a  nomination  in  the 
anti-Regency  stronghold  of  Albany. 

Not  to  be  outdone  in  the  character  or  strength  of  their 
ticket,  the  Adams  men  summoned  their  ablest  and  most  elo- 
quent campaigners  to  share  the  burden  of  the  contest;  and 
Elisha  Williams,  Peter  B.  Sharpe,  Francis  Granger,  and 
Peter  B.  Porter  readily  responded.  Ezra  C.  Gross,  who  had 
served  a  term  in  Congress,  also  bore  a  conspicuous  part. 
Gross  was  rapidly  forging  to  the  front,  and  would  doubtless 
have  become  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  brilliant  men  in  the 
^tate  had  he  not  fallen  an  early  victim  to  intemperance. 

For  a  purely  local  campaign,  without  the  assistance  of  a 
«tate  ticket,  it  proved  a  canvass  of  unusual  vehemence,  fill- 
ing the  air  with  caricatures  and  lampoons,  and  bringing  vic- 
tory to  the  drilled  and  disciplined  forces  which  were  now  to 
follow,  for  half  a  score  of  years,  the  fortunes  of  the  New  Or- 
leans hero.  From  the  moment  Jackson  became  the  standard- 
"bcarer,  the  crowds  were  with  him.  Adams  was  represented 
as  cold  and  personally  unpopular;  Jackson  as  frank,  cordial 
in  manner,  and  bravely  chivalric.  When  everything  in  fa- 
vour of  Adams  was  carefully  summed  up  and  admitted,  his 
ability  as  a  writer,  as  a  lawyer,  as  a  diplomatist,  and  as  a 
statesman,  the  people,  fascinated  by  the  distinguished  traits 
of  character  and  the  splendour  of  the  victory  at  New  Orleans, 
threw  their  hats  into  the  air  for  Andrew  Jackson.  The  elo- 
quence of  Williams  could  carry  Columbia  County;  Porter, 
ever  popular  and  interesting,  could  sweep  the  Niagara  fron- 
tier; and  Gross,  with  an  illuminated  rhetoric  that  lives  to 
this  day  in  the  memory  of  men  who  heard  their  fathers  talk 
about  it,  had  no  trouble  in  Essex;  but  from  the  Hudson  to 
Lake  Oneida  the  Jackson  party  may  be  said  to  have  carried 


1826-8]  ANTI-MASONIC   EXCITEMENT  359 

everything  by  storm,  electing  its  ticket  by  over  four  thou- 
sand majority  in  New  York  City,  and  securing  nearly  all  the 
senatorial  districts  and  the  larger  part  of  the  Assembly.  So 
overwhelming  was  the  victory  that  Van  Buren  had  no  trouble 
at  the  opening  of  the  Twentieth  Congress  to  defeat  the  re- 
election of  John  W.  Taylor  for  speaker. 

As  the  time  approached  for  nominating  a  governor  to  lead 
the  campaign  of  1828,  Van  Buren  realised  that  the  anti- 
masonic  sentiment,  which  had  been  rapidly  growing  since 
the  abduction  of  William  Morgan,  had  developed  into  an  in- 
fluence throughout  the  western  part  of  the  State  that  threat- 
ened serious  trouble.  Morgan  was  a  native  of  Virginia,  born 
in  1776,  a  man  of  fair  education,  and  by  trade  a  stone-mason. 
Little  is  known  of  his  life  until  1821,  when  he  resided  first 
in  York,  Canada,  and,  a  year  later,  in  Rochester,  New  Y^ork, 
where  he  worked  at  his  trade.  Then  he  drifted  to  LeRoy,  in 
Genesee  County,  becoming  an  active  Free  Mason.  After- 
ward, he  moved  back  to  Rochester,  and  then  to  Batavia, 
where  he  sought  out  David  C.  Miller,  a  printer,  who  agreed 
to  publish  whatever  secrets  of  Free  Masonry  Morgan  would 
reveal.  The  work,  done  by  night  and  on  Sundays,  was  finally 
interrupted  on  September  11,  1826,  by  Morgan's  arrest,  on  a 
trifling  criminal  charge,  and  transfer  to  Canandaigua  for  ex- 
amination. His  acquittal  was  immediately  followed  by  a  sec- 
ond arrest  upon  a  civil  process  for  a  small  debt  and  by  his 
imprisonment  in  the  Canandaigua  jail.  When  discharged  on 
the  succeeding  night,  he  was  quickly  seized,  and,  as  it  subse- 
quently appeared  from  the  evidence  taken  at  the  trial  of  his 
abductors,  he  was  bound,  gagged,  thrust  violently  into  a  cov- 
ered carriage,  driven  by  a  circuitous  route,  with  relays  of 
horses  and  men,  to  Fort  Niagara,  and  left  in  confinement  in 
the  magazine.    Here  he  dropped  out  of  view. 

The  excitement  following  the  discovery  of  this  crime  was 
without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  Western  New  Y'ork.  Citi- 
zens everywhere  organised  committees  for  the  apprehension 
of  the  offenders ;  the  Governor  offered  a  reward  for  their  dis- 
covery; the  Legislature  authorised  the  appointment  of  able 


360         VAN  BUKEN  ELECTED  GOVERNOE     LChap.  xxxii. 

lawyers  to  investigate;  and  William  L.  Marcy  and  Sanauel 
Nelson,  then  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  were  designated 
to  hold  special  circuits  for  the  trial  of  the  accused.  Many 
persons  were  convicted  and  punished  as  aiders  and  abettors 
of  the  conspiracy.  For  three  years  the  excitement  continued 
without  abatement,  until  the  whole  State  west  of  Syracuse 
became  soaked  with  deep  and  bitter  feeling,  dividing  families, 
sundering  social  ties,  and  breeding  lawsuits  in  vindication  of 
assailed  character.  Public  sentiment  was  divided  as  to 
whether  Morgan  had  been  put  to  death.  Half  a  century  after- 
ward, in  1882,  Thurlow  Weed  published  an  affidavit,  rehears- 
ing a  statement  made  to  him  in  1831  by  John  Whitney,  who 
confessed  that  he  was  one  of  five  persons  who  took  Morgan 
from  the  magazine  and  drowned  him  in  Lake  Ontario.^ 

The  trouble  stirred  up  by  this  unfortunate  afifair  gradually 
drifted  into  politics.  In  the  spring  of  1827,  a  disinclination 
had  shown  itself  among  the  people  of  Genesee  County  to 
support  Free  Masons  for  supervisors  or  justices  of  the  peace, 
and,  although  the  leading  men  of  the  western  part  of  the 
State  deprecated  political  action,  the  pressure  became  so 
great  that  Free  Masons  were  excluded  from  local  tickets  in 
certain  towns  of  Genesee  and  Monroe  Counties.  This  course 
was  resented  by  their  friends.  In  the  summer  of  the  same 
year,  the  old  treasurer  of  Rochester,  who  had  been  elected 
year  after  year  without  opposition,  was  defeated.  No  one 
had  openly  opposed  him,  but  a  canvass  of  the  returns  dis- 
closed a  silent  vote  which  was  quickly  charged  to  the  Masons. 
This  discovery,  says  Thurlow  Weed,  ''was  like  a  spark  of  fire 
dropped  into  combustible  materials."  Immediately,  Roches- 
ter became  the  centre  of  anti-Masonry.  In  September,  an 
anti-masonic  convention  nominated  a  legislative  ticket, 
which,  to  the  amazement  and  confusion  of  the  old  parties, 
swept  Monroe  County  by  a  majority  of  over  seventeen  hun- 
dred. Direction  was  thus  given  to  the  movement.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  when  the  state  and  national  election  was  ap- 
proaching, it  appeared  that  throughout  "the  infected  dis- 
^  Autobiography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  332. 


1828]  NATIONAL  KEPUBLICANS  361 

trict,"  as  it  was  called,  the  opponents  of  Masonry,  although 
previously  about  equally  divided  in  political  sentiment,  had 
aligned  themselves  with  the  Adams  party,  and  that  the 
Masons  had  aflSliated  with  the  followers  of  Jackson.  There 
was  good  reason  for  this  division.  The  prominent  men  in 
the  anti-masonic  body,  for  the  most  part,  were  not  only  lead- 
ers of  the  Adams  party,  but,  very  early  in  the  excitement, 
President  Adams  took  occasion  to  let  it  be  known  that  he 
was  not  a  Mason.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  well  understood 
that  Jackson  was  a  Mason  and  gloried  in  it. 

This  was  the  situation  when  the  Adams  followers,  who  now 
called  themselves  National  Republicans,  met  in  convention 
at  Utica  on  July  22,  1828.  The  wise  policy  of  nominating 
candidates  acceptable  to  all  Anti-Masons  was  plain,  and  the 
delegates  from  the  western  half  of  the  State  proposed  Fran- 
cis Granger  for  governor.  Granger  was  not  then  a  political 
Anti-Mason,  but  he  was  clean,  well-known,  and  popular,  and 
for  two  years  had  been  a  leading  member  of  the  Assembly. 
Thurlow  Weed  said  of  him  that  he  was  ''a  gentleman  of  ac- 
complished manners,  genial  temperament,  and  fine  presence, 
with  fortune,  leisure,  and  a  taste  for  public  life."-  Indeed, 
he  appears  to  have  felt  from  the  first  a  genuine  delight  in 
the  vivid  struggles  of  the  political  arena,  and,  although  des- 
tined to  be  twice  beaten  for  governor,  and  once  for  Vice 
President,  he  had  abundant  service  in  the  Cabinet,  in  the 
Legislature,  and  in  Congress.  Just  then  he  was  thirty-six 
years  old,  the  leading  antagonist  of  John  C.  Spencer  at  the 
Canandaigua  bar,  and  one  whom  everybody  regarded  as  a 
master-spirit.  Dressed  in  a  bottle-green  coat  with  gilt  but- 
tons, a  model  of  grace  and  manhood,  he  was  the  attraction  of 
the  ladies'  gallery.  He  had  youth,  enthusiasm,  magnificent 
gifts,  and  a  heart  to  love.  All  his  resources  seemed  to  be  at 
instant  command,  according  as  he  had  need  of  them.  Be- 
sides, he  was  a  born  Republican.  Thomas  Jefferson  had  made 
his  father  postmaster-general,  and  during  the  thirteen  years 

^  AutoUograpliy  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  391. 


362         VAN  BUKEN  ELECTED  GOVERNOK     [Chap,  xxxii. 

he  held  the  office,  the  son  was  studying  at  Yale  and  fighting 
Federalism,^ 

Eastern  delegates  wanted  Smith  Thompson,  Thompson 
was  a  man  of  great  learning  and  an  honoured  member  of  the 
Republican  party.  But  he  was  sixty  years  old.  With  the 
exception  of  five  years  as  secretary  of  the  navy,  under  Mon- 
roe, he  had  been  continuously  upon  the  bench  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  first  as  justice  and  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  latterly  as  associate  justice  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  It  was  suggested,  with 
some  pertinency  as  it  afterward  appeared,  that  the  people  of 
the  State  having  declared  in  the  recently  adopted  Constitu- 
tion, that  a  judge,  holding  office  during  good  behaviour, 
ought  not  to  be  a  candidate  for  an  elective  office,  would  re- 
sent such  a  nomination.  It  was  further  suggested,  with 
even  greater  force,  that  Thompson's  nomination  would  offend 
the  ultra  Anti-Masons  and  bring  an  independent  ticket  into 
the  field,  thus  dividing  the  Adams  vote  and  giving  the  elec- 
tion to  the  Jackson  candidate.     On  the  other  hand,  it  was 

'Writing  of  Granger,  in  January,  1831,  Seward  says:  "I  believe 
I  have  never  told  you  all  I  thought  about  this  star  of  the  first 
magnitude  in  Anti-masonry,  and  the  reason  was  that,  with  a  limited 
personal  acquaintance,  I  might  give  you  erroneous  impressions 
which  I  should  afterward  be  unable  to  reverse.  He  is  'six  feet  and 
well-proportioned,'  as  you  well  know,  handsome,  graceful,  dignified, 
and  affable,  as  almost  any  hero  of  whom  you  have  read;  is  probably 
about  thirty-six  or  seven  years  old.  In  point  of  talent  he  has  a 
quick  and  ready  apprehension,  a  good  memory,  and  usually  a 
sound  judgment.  Has  no  'genius,'  in  its  restricted  sense,  not  a 
very  brilliant  imagination,  nor  extraordinary  reasoning  faculties; 
has  no  deep  store  of  learning,  nor  a  very  extensive  degree  of  in- 
formation. Yet  he  is  intimately  acquainted  with  politics,  and  wifh 
the  affairs,  interests,  and  men  of  the  State.  He  is  never  great,  but 
alwajs  successful.  He  writes  with  ease  and  speaks  with  fiuency 
and  elegance — never  attempts  an  argument  beyond  his  capacity, 
and,  being  a  good  judge  of  men's  character,  motives,  and  actions, 
he  never  fails  to  command  admiration,  respect,  and  esteem.  Not  a 
man  do  I  know  who  is  his  equal  in  the  skill  of  exhibiting  every 
particle  of  his  stores  with  great  advantage.  You  will  inquire  about 
his   manners.    His  hair  is    ever  gracefully  curled,   his  broad   and 


i 


1828]  FEANCIS  GKANGER  363 

maintained  with  equal  spirit  that  the  nomination  of  Gran- 
ger, avowedly  to  secure  the  anti-raasonic  vote,  would  offend 
the  National  Republicans  and  jeopardise  the  state  as  well 
as  the  electoral  ticket.  It  took  a  ballot  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion, and  Thompson  won  by  a  close  vote.  Francis  Granger 
was  then  nominated  for  lieutenant-governor  by  acclamation. 
As  predicted,  several  ultra  anti-masonic  editors  in  Genesee 
and  Ontario  counties  immediately  denounced  the  nomina- 
tion of  Thompson.  The  Adams  people  knew  it  portended 
danger;  but  Thompson  would  not  withdraw  and  the  ultras 
would  not  relent.  Thereupon,  the  anti-masonic  convention, 
already  called  to  meet  at  Utica,  added  to  the  difficulty  of  the 
situation  by  nominating  Francis  Granger  and  John  Crary. 
Granger  had  not  solicited  nomination,  and  now  he  was  bur- 
dened with  two.  But  Thompson  refused  to  relieve  the  em- 
barrassment, and  Crary  proved  wickedlj^  false  to  his  agree- 
ment. The  latter  admitted  that  the  union  of  the  Adams  and 
anti-masonic  forces  would  probably  elect  Granger  for  lieu- 
tenant-governor, and  he  promised  to  withdraw  as  soon  as 

expansive  brow  is  always  exposed,  his  person  is  ever  carefully 
dressed,  to  exhibit  his  face  and  form  aright  and  with  success.  He 
is  a  gallant  and  fashionable  man.  He  seems  often  to  neglect  great 
matters  for  small  ones,  and  I  have  often  thought  him  a  trifler;  yet 
he  is  universally,  by  the  common  people,  esteemed  grave  and  great. 
He  is  an  aristocrat  in  his  feelings,  though  the  people  who  know  him 
think  him  all  condescension.  He  is  a  prince  among  those  who  are 
equals,  affable  to  inferiors,  and  knows  no  superiors.  In  principle 
he  has  redeeming  qualities — more  than  enough  to  atone  for  his 
faults — is  honest,  honourable,  and  just,  first  and  beyond  comparison 
with  other  politicians  of  the  day.  You  will  ask  impatiently,  'Has 
he  a  heart?'  Yes.  Although  he  has  less  than  those  who  do  not 
knov^^  him  believe  him  to  possess,  he  has  much  more  than  those 
who  meet  him  frequently,  but  not  intimately,  will  allow  him  to 
have.  He  loves,  esteems,  and  never  forgets  his  friends;  but  you 
must  not  understand  me  that  he  possesses  as  confiding  and  true  a 
heart  as  Berdan  had,  or  as  you  think  I  have,  or  as  we  both  know 
Weed  has.  There  is  yet  one  quality  of  Granger's  character  which 
you  do  not  dream  of — he  loves  money  almost  as  well  as  power." — 
Frederick  W.  Seward,  Life  of  W.  H.  Seward,  Vol.  1,  p.  171. 


364         VAN  BUREN  ELECTED  GOVERNOR    [Chap,  xxxir. 

Granger  should  do  so.  Upon  this  Granger  declined  the  anti- 
masonic  nomination;  but  the  wily  Van  Buren,  who  was  in- 
tently watching  the  embarrassment  of  the  National 
Republicans,  took  good  care  to  have  Crary  remain 
and  Solomon  Southwick  substituted  for  Granger.  The 
general  sentiment  of  the  Anti-Masons  did  not  respond 
to  this  movement.  But  the  angry  feeling  excited  by 
Granger's  declination,  aided  bj^  Van  Buren's  finesse, 
gave  Southwick,  who  had  acquired  some  credit  with  the 
Anti-Masons  by  an  early  renunciation  of  his  masonic  ties, 
an  opportunity  of  advancing  his  visionary  projects  of  per- 
sonal ambition.  Thurlow  Weed  declared  that  the  people  had 
been  "juggled"  out  of  a  candidate  for  governor;  but  Weed 
did  not  know  that  Van  Buren,  needing  money  to  help  along 
the  jugglery,  wrote  James  A.  Hamilton,  the  son  of  the  great 
Federalist,  that  unless  "you  do  more  in  New  York  than 
you  promised,  our  friends  in  Albany,  at  best  poor,  will  break 
down."  Crary  was  one  of  the  assemblymen  who,  in  1824, 
had  boldly  denounced  the  removal  of  Clinton  as  a  canal  com- 
missioner. After  his  broken  promise  to  Granger  and  his 
bargain  with  Van  Buren,  however,  he  ceased  to  be  called 
"Honest  John  Crary." 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  National  Republican  convention, 
Martin  Van  Buren  was  announced  as  the  Jackson  candidate 
for  governor.  It  was  well-known,  at  least  to  the  Albany 
Regency,  that  if  Jackson  became  President,  Van  Buren 
would  be  his  secretary  of  state.  One  can  readily  understand 
that  Van  Buren  would  willingly  exchange  the  Senate  for  the 
head  of  the  Cabinet,  since  the  office  of  secretary  of  state  had 
been  for  twenty  years  a  certain  stepping-stone  to  the  Presi- 
dency. Madison  had  been  Jefferson's  secretary  of  state,  Mon- 
roe had  filled  the  exalted  place  under  Madison,  and  John 
Quincy  Adams  served  Monroe  in  the  same  capacity.  But 
Van  Buren's  willingness  to  exchange  the  Senate,  an  arena  in 
which  he  had  ranked  among  the  ablest  statesmen  of  the  Re- 
public, for  the  governorship,  was  prompted  by  the  force  of 
circumstances  and  not  by  choice.    Jackson's  election  was  be- 


1828]  VAN  BUEEN   AT  CHURCH  365 

lieved  to  depend  upon  New  York,  and  the  carrying  of  New 
York,  to  depend  upon  Van  Buren.  The  latter,  at  this  time, 
was  at  the  zenith  of  his  popularity.  His  speeches  had  not 
only  stamped  him  as  a  genuine  parliamentary  debater,  but 
had  gained  for  him  the  reputation  of  being  the  congressional 
leader  and  chief  organiser  of  the  Jackson  party.  During  his 
seven  and  a  half  years  in  the  Senate,  his  name  was  associated 
with  every  event  of  importance ;  his  voice  was  heard  on  one 
side  or  the  other  of  every  question  that  interested  the  Ameri- 
can people;  and  the  force  he  brought  to  bear,  whether  for 
good  or  evil,  swayed  the  minds  of  contemporaries  to  an 
unusual  degree. 

Van  Buren  looked  his  best  in  these  days.  His  complexion 
was  a  bright  blonde,  and  he  dressed  with  the  taste  of  Dis- 
raeli. Henry  B.  Stanton  describes  him  as  he  appeared  at 
church  in  Rochester  on  a  Sunday  during  the  campaign.  "He 
wore  an  elegant  snufiP-colored  broadcloth  coat  with  velvet  col- 
lar; his  cravat  was  orange  with  modest  lace  tips;  his  vest 
was  of  a  pearl  hue;  his  trousers  were  white  duck;  his  silk 
hose  corresponded  to  the  vest;  his  shoes  were  morocco;  his 
nicely  fitting  gloves  were  yellow  kid ;  his  long-furred  beaver 
hat,  with  broad  brim,  was  of  Quaker  color.  As  he  sat  in 
the  wealthy  aristocratic  church  of  the  town,  in  the  pew  of 
General  Gould  who  had  been  a  lifelong  Federalist  and  sup- 
porter of  Clinton,  all  eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  man  who  held 
Jackson's  fate  in  his  hands."* 

Van  Buren  did  not  propose  to  take  any  chances,  either  in 
securing  the  nomination  or  the  election  for  governor — hence 
his  visit  to  Rochester  and  the  western  counties  to  study  for 
himself  the  anti-masonic  situation.  ''The  excitement  has 
"been  vastly  greater  than  I  supposed,"  he  wrote  Hamilton.  In 
order  to  find  some  way  of  pacifying  it,  he  turned  aside  to 
visit  the  home  of  his  friend,  Enos  T.  Throop,  then  living  on 
the  wooded  and  beautiful  banks  of  Lake  Owasco.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1827,  Throop,  who  presided  at  the  first  trial  of  the 
Morgan  abductors,  had,  to  the  great  delight  of  all  Anti- 
*H.  B.  Stanton,  Random  Recollections,  p.  32. 


366         VAN  BUKEN  ELECTED  GOVERNOR     [Chap.  xxxn. 

Masons,  flayed  the  defendants,  before  pronouncing  sentence, 
in  a  remarkably  effective  and  emphatic  address.  Such  a 
man  was  needed  to  strengthen  the  Jackson  ticket,  and  before 
Van  Buren  got  home  it  was  charged  that  he  had  secured 
Throop's  promise  to  stand  for  lieutenant-governor,  with  the 
assurance  that  within  three  months  after  his  inauguration, 
if  everything  went  according  to  programme,  he  should  be  the 
acting  governor. 

These  tactics  meant  the  turning  down  of  Nathaniel 
Pitcher,  the  acting  governor  in  place  of  DeWitt  Clinton. 
Pitcher  had  served  four  years  in  the  Assembly,  one  term  in 
Congress,  and  as  a  delegate  to  the  convention  in  1821. 
Though  a  man  of  limited  education  and  strong  prejudices, 
with  a  depth  of  feeling  that  made  him  as  vigorously  inde- 
pendent as  he  was  rigidly  honest,  he  proved  his  fitness  for 
the  high  office  to  which  he  had  suddenly  fallen  heir  by  several 
excellent  appointments  to  the  Superior  Court,  just  then  cre- 
ated for  the  city  of  New  York.  He  honoured  himself  further 
by  restoring  the  rule,  so  rudely  broken  by  Clinton,  of  offer- 
ing the  chancellorship  to  Chief  Justice  Savage,  and,  upon 
his  declining  it,  to  Reuben  H.  Walworth,  then  a  young  and 
most  promising  circuit  judge.  Later  in  the  year,  he  named 
Daniel  Mosely  for  the  seventh  circuit  vacated  by  the  resigna- 
tion of  Enos  T.  Throop,  soon  to  become  lieutenant-governor. 
These  appointments  marked  him  as  a  wise  and  safe  execu- 
tive. Van  Buren  understood  this,  and  his  correspondence 
with  Hamilton,  and  others,  while  absent  in  the  west,  affords 
many  interesting  glimpses  into  his  political  methods  in  their 
immodest  undress.  As  the  candidate  for  governor,  he  was 
very  active  just  now.  His  letters  indicate  that  he  gave  per- 
sonal attention  to  the  selection  of  all  delegates,  and  that  he 
wanted  only  those  in  whom  reliance  could  be  absolutely 
placed.  "Your  views  about  the  delegates  are  correct,"  he 
says  to  Hamilton.  ''It  would  be  hazarding  too  much  to  make 
out  a  list."  A  list  might  contain  names  of  men  who  could 
not  be  safely  trusted  at  such  a  supreme  moment;  and  Van 
Buren  naturally  desired  that  his  nomination  should  be  en- 


1S2S]  A  SCANDALOUS  CAMPAIGN  367 

thusiastically  unanimous.  The  slightest  protest  from  some 
disappointed  friend  of  Nathaniel  Pitcher,  who  was  to  be  sac- 
rificed for  Throop,  or  of  Joseph  C.  Yates,  who  was  spending 
his  years  in  forced  retirement  at  Schenectady,  would  take 
away  the  glory  and  dull  the  effect  of  what  was  intended  to 
be  a  sudden  and  unanimous  uprising  of  the  people's  free  and 
untrammelled  delegates  in  favour  of  the  senior  United  States 
senator,  the  Moses  of  the  newly-born  Democratic  party. 

The  anticipated  trouble  at  the  Herkimer  convention,  how- 
ever, did  not  appear.  Delegates  were  selected  to  nominate 
Martin  Van  Buren  and  Enos  T.  Throop,  and,  after  they  had 
carried  out  the  programme  with  unanimity.  Pitcher  ceased 
to  act  with  the  Jackson  party.  But  the  contest  between  the 
opposing  parties  proved  exceedingly  bitter  and  malevolent. 
It  resembled  the  scandalous  campaign  of  John  Adams  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  in  1800,  and  the  more  recent  Blaine  and 
Cleveland  canvass  of  1884.  Everything  that  could  be  tor- 
tured into  apparent  wrong  was  served  up  to  listening  thou- 
sands. Van  Buren  had  about  him  the  genius  of  Edwin  Cros- 
well,  the  unerring  judgment  of  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  the  wis- 
dom of  William  L.  Marcy,  the  diplomacy  of  Benjamin 
Knower,  and  the  scintillating  brilliancy  of  Samuel  A.  Tal- 
cott ;  but  like  McGregor,  Van  Buren  sat  at  the  head  of  the 
table.  He  cautioned  Noah,  he  complimented  Coleman,  he 
kept  Southwick  and  Crary  on  the  anti-masonic  ticket,  he  se- 
lected the  candidate  for  lieutenant-governor,  he  called  for 
funds,  and  he  insisted  upon  making  the  Adams  administra- 
tion odious.  In  referring  to  the  President  and  his  secretary 
of  state,  he  did  not  personally  join  in  the  cry  of  bargain  and 
sale,  of  fraud  and  corruption,  of  treachery  and  knavery ;  nor 
did  he  speak  of  them  as  "the  Puritan  and  the  Blackleg;"  but 
for  three  years  his  criticisms  had  so  associated  the  Adminis- 
tration with  Federalism  and  the  offensive  alien  and  sedition 
laws  which  Jefferson  condemned  and  defeated  in  1800,  that 
the  younger  Adams  inherited  the  odium  attached  to  his 
father  a  quarter  of  a  century  before. 

The  National  Republicans  retaliated  with  statements  no 


368         VAN  BUREN  ELECTED  GOVERNOK     [Chap,  xxxii. 

less  base  and  worthless,  exhibiting  Jackson  as  a  military 
butcher  and  utterly  illiterate,  and  publishing  documents  as- 
sailing his  marriage,  the  chastity  of  his  wife,  and  the  execu- 
tion of  six  militiamen  convicted  of  mutiny.  Thurlow  Weed, 
who  conducted  the  Adams  campaign  in  the  western  part  of 
the  State,  indulged  in  no  personal  attacks  upon  Jackson  or 
his  wife,  refusing  to  send  out  the  documents  known  as  ''Do- 
mestic Relations"  and  "CofiJn  Handbills."  "The  impression 
of  the  masses  was  that  the  six  militiamen  deserved  hanging," 
he  says,  in  his  autobiography,  "and  I  look  back  now  with  as- 
tonishment that  enlightened  and  able  statesmen  could  be- 
lieve that  General  Jackson  would  be  injured  with  the  people 
by  ruthlessly  invading  the  sanctuary  of  his  home,  and  per- 
mitting a  lady  whose  life  had  been  blameless  to  be  dragged 
forth  into  the  arena  of  politics."' 

The  result  of  the  election  for  governor  and  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor was  practically  settled  by  the  nomination  of  an  anti- 
masonic  independent  ticket.  Thurlow  Weed  advised  Smith 
Thompson  that  votes  enough  to  defeat  him  would  be  thrown 
away  upon  Southwick.  Van  Buren  wrote  Hamilton  to  "bet 
for  me  on  joint-account  five  hundred  dollars  that  Thompson 
will  be  defeated,  and  one  hundred  dollars  on  every  thousand 
of  a  majority  up  to  five  thousand ;  or,  if  you  can't  do  better, 
say  five  hundred  on  the  result  and  fifty  on  every  thousand 
up  to  ten."  The  returns  justified  his  confidence.  He  re- 
ceived one  hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand  votes  to  one  hun- 
dred and  six  thousand  for  Thompson  and  thirty-three  thou- 
sand for  Southwick.^  Francis  Granger  would  probably  have 
received  the  aggregate  vote  of  Thompson  and  Southwick,  or 
three  thousand  more  than  Van  Buren.  That  Weed  rightly 
understood  the  situation  is  evidenced  by  his  insistence  that 
a  candidate  be  nominated  accejjtable  to  the  Anti-Masons. 
I  "Van  Buren's  election,"  said  Thurlow  Weed,  in  his  autobi- 
ography, the  tears  of  disappointment  and  chagrin  almost 
trickling  down  his  cheeks  when  he  wrote  the  words  nearly 

^Autobiography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  309. 

'Civil  List,  State  of  New  York  (1887),  p.  166. 


1828]  A  LEADER  WHO  COULD  LEAD  369 

half  a  century  afterward,  ''enabled  his  party  to  hold  the 
State  for  the  twelve  succeeding  years."^  But  it  was  the  last 
time,  for  many  years,  that  Thurlow  Weed  did  not  have  his 
way  in  the  party.  It  was  apparent  that  the  opponents  of 
Van  Buren  needed  a  leader  who  could  lead;  and,  although 
it  took  years  of  patient  effort  to  cement  into  a  solid  fighting 
mass  all  the  heterogeneous  elements  that  Clinton  left  and 
Van  Buren  could  not  control,  the  day  was  destined  to  come 
w^hen  one  party  flag  floated  over  an  organisation  under  the 
leadership  of  the  stately  form  of  Thurlow  Weed.  . 

"'Autobiography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  307. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD  AND  THURLOW  WEED 

1830 

Although  the  election  in  1828  brought  hopeless  defeat  to 
the  National  Republicans,  apparently  it  imparted  in- 
creased confidence  and  vigour  to  anti-Masonry.  For  a  time, 
this  movement  resembled  the  growth  of  abolitionism  at  a 
later  day,  people  holding  that  a  secret  society,  which  sought 
to  paralyse  courts,  by  closing  the  mouths  of  witnesses  and 
otherwise  unnerving  the  arm  of  justice,  threatened  the  exist- 
ence of  popular  government.  The  moral  question,  too,  ap- 
pealed strongly  to  persons  prominent  in  social,  professional,) 
and  church  life,  who  increased  the  excitement  by  renouncing! 
masonic  ties  and  signifying  their  conversion  to  the  new  gos- 
pel of  anti-Masonry.  Cadwallader  D.  Golden,  formerly  the 
distinguished  mayor  of  New  York  and  a  lawyer  of  high  repu- 
tation, wrote  an  effective  letter  against  Free  Masonry,  which 
was  supplemented  by  the  famous  document  of  David  Bar- 
nard, a  popular  Baptist  divine  of  Chautauqua  County.  Henry 
Dana  Ward  established  the  Anti-Masonic  Review  in  New 
York  City,  and  Frederick  "\^'hittlesey  became  equally  eflScient 
and  influential  as  editor  of  the  Rochester  Republican. 

JBut  the  man  who  led  the  fight  and  became  the  centre  from 
which  all  influences  emanated  was  Thurlow  Weed.  Early  in 
the  struggle,  as  a  member  of  the  Morgan  committee,  he  in- 
vestigated the  crime  of  1826.  Soon  after,  he  founded  the 
Anti-Masonic  Enquirer  of  Rochester,  whose  circulation,  un- 
paralleled in  those  days,  quickly  included  the  western  and 
northern  counties  of  New  York,  and  the  neighbouring  States 
of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  Vermont.  Weed  had  been  slow  to 

370 


1829]  SELECTING  LIEUTENANTS  371 

yield  to  the  influences  which  carried  the  question  into  poli- 
tics, but,  once  having  determined  to  appeal  to  the  ballot-box, 
he  set  to  work  to  strengthen  and  enlarge  the  party.  It  be- 
came a  quasi-religious  movement,  ministers  and  churches, 
without  any  very  far-reaching  hopes  and  plans,  labouring  to 
bring  about  a  spirit  which  should  induce  men  to  renounce 
Masonry ;  and  in  their  zeal  they  worked  with  the  singleness 
of  thought  and  the  accepted  methods  that  dominate  the  re- 
vivalist and  temperance  advocate. 

The  aim  of  Thurlow  Weed  was  to  reach  the  people,  and  it 
mattered  not  how  often  he  had  to  bear  defeat,  or  the  sneers 
of  older  politicians  and  an  established  press ;  he  flung  him- 
self into  the  work  with  an  indomitable  spirit  and  an  entire 
disregard  of  trouble  and  pain.  Weed  was  a  born  fighter,  i  He 
saw  no  visions,  he  believed  in  no  omens,  and  he  had  no 
thought  of  bearing  a  charmed  life ;  but  he  seema  to  have  been 
indifferent  to  changes  of  season  or  the  assaults  of  men,  as  he 
travelled  from  one  end  of  the  State  to  the  other  regardless  of 
inclement  weather,  answering  attacks  with  rough  and  rasp- 
ing sarcasms,  and  meeting  every  crisis  with  the  candour  and 
courage  of  a  John  Wesley.  One  reads  in  his  autobiography, 
almost  with  a  feeling  of  incredulity,  of  the  toil  cheerfully 
borne  and  the  privations  eagerly  endured  while  the  guiding 
member  of  the  Morgan  committee.  ] 

l\\^eed  proved  a  great  captain,  not  only  in  directing  and 
inspiring  anti-masonic  movements,  but  in  rallying  to  his 
standard  a  body  of  young  men  destined  to  occupy  conspicu- 
ous places  in  the  State  and  in  the  nation.  Among  those  en- 
tering the  Assembly,  in  1829,  were  Philo  C,  Fuller  of  Living- 
ston and  Millard  Fillmore  of  Erie.  When  Weed  first  met 
him,  in  1824,  Fuller  was  a  law  clerk  in  James  Wadsworth's 
office,  only  twenty-three  years  old.  But  Weed  noted  his  fit- 
ness for  public  place,  and  in  1828  had  him  nominated  and 
elected  to  the  Assembly. 

Millard  Fillmore  was  a  year  or  two  older.  His  youth, 
like  that  of  Weed,  had  been  crowded  with  everything  except 
schooling.    He  learned  the  clothier's  trade,  he  was  appren- 


372  SEWAKD  AND  WEED  [Chap,  xxxui. 

ticed  to  a  wool-carder,  and  he  served  his  time  at  the  wood- 
pile, in  the  harvest  field,  and  as  chore  boy.  Only  at  odd  mo- 
ments did  he  get  an  education ;  but  when  he  began  studying 
law  and  teaching  school  he  quickly  evidenced  a  strength  of 
intellect  that  distinguished  him  throughout  life.  Weed  met 
him  at  an  Adams  convention  in  Buffalo,  in  1828,  and  so  fa- 
vourably impressed  was  he  with  his  ability  that  he  suggested 
his  nomination  for  the  Assembly. 

One  year  later.  Weed  insisted  upon  the  nomination  of  Al- 
bert H.  Tracy,  of  Erie,  for  the  Senate.  Tracy,  who  had  al- 
ready served  six  years  in  Congress,  had  the  advantage  of  be- 
ing well  born  and  well  educated.  His  father,  a  distinguished 
physician  of  Connecticut,  urged  him  to  adopt  the  profession 
of  medicine,  but  when  about  ready  for  a  degree,  he  entered 
his  brother's  law  office  at  Madison,  New  York,  and,  in  1815, 
upon  his  admission  to  the  bar,  settled  in  Buffalo.  He  was 
then  twenty-two  years  old.  Four  years  later  he  entered  Con- 
gress. He  had  earned  this  quick  start  by  good  ability;  and 
so  acceptably  did  he  maintain  himself,  that,  in  spite  of  the 
acrimony  existing  between  Clintonian  and  Bucktail,  his 
name  was  regarded  with  much  favour  in  1825  as  the  succes- 
sor of  Rufus  King  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Tracy  was 
a  man  of  marked  ability.  Though  neither  brilliant  nor  dis- 
tinguished as  a  public  speaker,  he  was  a  skilful  advocate, 
easy  and  natural ;  with  the  help  of  a  marvellous  memory,  and 
a  calm,  philosophic  temperament,  he  ranked  among  the 
foremost  lawyers  of  his  day.  Like  James  Tallmadge,  he 
was  inordinately  ambitious  for  public  life,  and  his  amiability 
admirably  fitted  him  for  it;  but  like  Tallmadge,  he  was 
not  always  governed  by  principle  so  much  as  policy.  He 
showed  at  times  a  lamentable  unsteadiness  in  his  leadership, 
listening  too  often  to  the  whispers  of  cunning  opponents, 
and  too  easily  separating  himself  from  tried  friends.  In 
1838,  he  practically  left  his  party ;  and,  soon  after,  he  ceased 
to  practise  his  profession,  burying  a  life  which  had  prom- 
ised great  usefulness  and  a  brilliant  career.  In  mien,  size, 
bearing,  visage,  and  conversation  he  was  the  counterpart  of 


1829]  A  COUNTKY  PKINTER  373 

Thomas  Jefferson  when  about  the  same  age — a  likeness  of 
which  Tracy  was  fully  conscious. 

Tracy's  nomination  to  the  Senate  in  1829  came  as  a  great 
surprise  and  a  greater  gratification.  He  had  not  taken  kindly 
to  the  anti -masonic  party.  Only  the  year  before,  he  dis- 
suaded John  Birdsall  from  accepting  its  nomination  to  Con- 
gress, because  of  the  obloquy  sure  to  follow  defeat;  but  its 
strength,  evidenced  in  the  campaign  of  1828,  opened  his 
eyes;  and,  while  absent  in  Albany,  unsuccessfully  seeking  a 
judgeship  from  Governor  Throop,  Thurlow  Weed  had  him 
nominated.  On  his  way  home,  he  stopped  at  Rochester 
to  call  upon  the  great  apostle  of  anti-Masonry,  reaching  the 
house  before  sunrise.  'Tie  was  wrapped  in  a  long  camlet 
cloak,"  says  Weed,  "and  wore  an  air  of  depression  that  be- 
tokened some  great  disappointment.  'You  have  been  east?' 
I  asked,  for  I  had  not  heard  of  his  absence  from  home.  'Yes,'^ 
he  answered.  'Then  you  don't  know  what  happened  at  Ba- 
tavia  yesterday?'  He  replied  in  the  negative,  and  I  contin- 
ued :  'We  had  a  convention  and  nominated  a  candidate  for 
senator.'  When  he  laughingly  inquired,  'Who?'  I  said, 
'Why,  we  nominated  you.'  He  instantly  jumped  two  feet 
from  the  floor  and  whooped  like  an  Indian.  Then,  with 
brightened  countenance  and  undisguised  elation  of  spirit 
that  he  was  to  have  a  seat  in  the  Senate  for  four  years,  he 
informed  me  of  his  disappointment  in  not  obtaining  either 
the  judgeship,  or  the  presidency  of  the  branch  of  the  United 
States  Bank  about  to  be  established  at  Buffalo."^ 

Thus  far,  Thurlow  Weed  had  won  more  reputation  than 
money  in  Rochester.  He  dwelt  in  a  cheap  house  in  an  ob- 
scure part  of  the  village.  Sometimes  he  had  to  borrow 
clothes  to  be  presentable.  "One  day,"  says  Henry  B.  Stan- 
ton, "I  was  standing  in  the  street  with  him  and  Frederick 
Whittlesey  when  his  little  boy  came  up  and  said :  'Father, 
mother  wants  a  shilling  to  buy  some  bread.'  Weed  put  on  a 
queer  look,  felt  in  his  pockets,  and  remarked:  'That  is  a 
home  appeal,  but  I'll  be  hanged  if  I've  got  the  shilling.^ 
'  Autobiography  of  Thurloic  Weed,  p.  340. 


374  SEWAKD  AND  WEED  [Chap,  xxxni. 

Whittlesey  drew  out  a  silver  dollar  and  gave  the  boy  who 
ran  oif  like  a  deer."^  Yet,  at  that  moment,  Weed  with  his 
bare  arms  spattered  with  printer's  ink,  was  the  greatest 
power  in  the  political  life  of  Western  New  York. 

But  a  scheme  more  helpful  to  Weed  and  to  his  party  than 
the  election  of  young  men  of  large  promise  was  just  now  on 
foot.  The  need  of  a  newspaper  at  Albany,  to  represent  the 
sentiments  of  the  Anti-Masons  had  long  been  recognised ;  and, 
to  enable  Weed  to  establish  it,  he  had  been  re-elected  to  the 
Assembly  in  the  autumn  of  1829.  In  the  course  of  the  winter 
the  project  quickly  took  shape ;  a  fund  of  twenty-five  hundred 
dollars  was  subscribed;  and  on  March  22,  1830,  appeared 
the  first  number  of  the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  in  which 
were  soon  to  be  published  the  sparkling  paragraphs  that 
made  it  famous.^  Weed's  salary  as  editor  was  fixed  at  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  The  paper  was  scarcely  larger 
than  the  cloud  "like  a  man's  hand ;"  and  its  one  hundred  and 
seventy  subscribers,  scattered  from  Buffalo  to  New  York,  be- 
came somewhat  disturbed  by  the  acrimonious  and  personal 
warfare  instantly  made  upon  it  by  Edwin  Croswell  of  the 
Argus. 

Croswell  and  Weed  had  been  boys  together  at  Catskili. 
They  were  neither  intimates  nor  equals,  although  of  the  same 
age;  for  young  Croswell  had  the  advantage  of  position  and 
education  given  him  by  his  father,  then  publisher  of  the 
Recorder.  To  Weed,  only  such  work  came  as  a  barefooted, 
ragged  urchin  of  eleven  was  supposed  to  be  capable  of  doing. 
This  was  in  1808.  The  two  boys  did  not  meet  again  for 
twenty  years,  and  then  only  to  separate  as  Hamilton  and 
Burr  had  parted,  on  the  road  to  White  Plains,  in  the  memor- 
able retreat  from  Manhattan  in  September,  1776.  But  Cros- 
well, retaining  the  quiet,  studious  habits  that  characterised 

''H.  B.  Stanton,  Random  Recollcctiotis,  p.  25. 

'  "Writing  slowly  and  with  difficulty,  Weed  was  for  twenty 
years  the  most  sententious  and  pungent  writer  of  editorial  para- 
graphs on  the  American  press." — Horace  Greeley,  Recollections 
of  a  Busy  Life,  p.  312. 


1830]  ALBANY  EVENING  JOURNAL  375 

Lis  youth,  climbed  rapidly.  He  had  become  editor  of  the 
Argus,  state  printer,  and  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  zealous 
members  of  the  Albany  Regency.  He  possessed  a  judgment 
that  seemed  almost  inspired,  with  such  untiring  industry  and 
rare  ability  that  for  years  the  Democratic  press  of  the  coun- 
try looked  upon  the  Argus  as  its  guiding  star. 

Against  this  giant  in  journalism  Thurlow  Weed  was  now 
to  be  opposed.  "You  have  a  great  responsibility  resting 
upon  your  shoulders,"  wrote  the  accomplished  Frederick 
Whittlesey,  ''but  I  know  no  man  who  is  better  able  to  meet 
it."*  This  was  the  judgment  of  a  man  who  had  personal 
knowledge  of  the  tremendous  power  of  Weed's  pen.  In  his 
later  years,  Weed  mellowed  and  forgave  and  forgot,  but  when 
he  went  to  Albany,  and  for  years  before,  as  well  as  after, 
he  seemed  to  enjoy  striking  an  adversary.  An  explosion  fol- 
lowed every  blow.  His  sarcasms  had  needle-points,  and  his 
wit,  sometimes  a  little  gross,  smarted  like  the  sting  of  wasps. 
Often  his  attacks  were  so  severe  and  merciless  that  the  dis- 
tress of  his  opponents  created  sympathy  for  them. 

Very  early  in  the  Evening  JournaVs  history  Croswell  in- 
vited Weed's  fire.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  Argus'  publisher 
thought  or  cared  much  about  the  character  of  the  reply. 
Editors  are  not  usually  sensitive  to  the  stricture  of  others. 
But  when  Weed's  retort  came,  the  rival  writers  remained 
without  personal  or  business  relations  until,  years  afterward, 
Croswell,  financially  crushed  by  the  failure  of  the  Albany 
Canal  Bank,  and  suspected  of  dishonesty,  implored  Weed's 
assistance  to  avoid  a  criminal  indictment.  In  the  meantime 
subscriptions  poured  into  the  Journal.  The  people  recog- 
nised a  fighter;  the  thoughtful  distinguished  a  powerful 
mind;  and  politicians  discovered  such  a  genius  for  leader- 
ship that  Albany  became  a  political  centre  for  the  National 
Republicans  as  it  was  for  the  Bucktails.  Within  ten  years 
after  its  establishment,  the  Evening  Journal  had  the  largest 
circulation  of  any  political  paper  in  the  United  States. 

The  birth  year  of  the  Journal  also  witnessed  a  reorganisa- 
*  Autobiography  of  Thurlow  Weed,  p.  361. 


376  SEWAED  AND  WEED  [Chap.  xxxm. 

tion  of  the  Anti-Masons,  Heretofore,  this  party  had  declared 
only  its  own  peculiar  principles,  relying  for  success  upon  the 
aid  of  the  National  Republicans ;  but,  as  it  now  sympathised 
with  Henry  Clay  upon  questions  of  governmental  policy,  es- 
pecially the  protection  of  American  industry,  it  became  evi- 
dent that,  to  secure  the  greatest  political  strength,  its  future 
policy  must  be  ardent  antagonism  to  the  principles  of  the 
Jackson  party.  Accordingly,  at  the  Utica  convention,  held 
in  August,  1830,  it  adopted  a  platform  substantially  embrac- 
ing the  views  of  the  National  Republicans.  In  acknowledg- 
ment of  this  change,  the  Adams  party  accepted  the  nomina- 
tion of  Francis  Granger  for  governor  and  Samuel  Stevens,  a 
prominent  lawyer  of  Albany  City  and  the  son  of  a  dis- 
tinguished Revolutionary  oflScer,  for  lieutenant-governor. 

The  Bucktails  did  not  get  on  so  smoothly  at  their  conven- 
tion, held  at  Herkimer,  on  September  8.  Erastus  Root 
thought  if  Van  Buren  could  afford  to  take  the  nomination 
away  from  Acting  Governor  Pitcher,  he  might  deprive  Enos 
T.  Throop  of  the  same  honour.  Throop,  who  was  acting  gov- 
ernor in  the  place  of  Van  Buren,  had  proved  a  feeble  execu- 
tive. Besides,  it  could  not  be  forgotten  that  Throop  suffered 
Van  Buren  to  humiliate  Pitcher  simply  to  make  his  own  elec- 
tion sure.  But  Throop  had  friends  if  nothing  else.  On  the 
first  ballot,  he  received  seventy-eight  votes  to  forty  for  Root. 
The  wrangle  over  lieutenant-governor  proved  less  irritating, 
and  Edward  P.  Livingston,  after  several  ballots,  secured 
seventy-seven  votes. 

These  contests  created  unusual  bitterness.  Root  had  the 
offer  of  support  from  a  working  men's  convention;  and  his 
failure  to  secure  the  Herkimer  nomination  left  the  working 
men,  especially  in  New  York  City,  in  no  mood  to  support 
the  Bucktail  choice.  All  this  greatly  encouraged  the  Anti- 
Masons.  Granger  and  Stevens  commanded  the  cordial  sup- 
port  of  the  National  Republicans,  while  Throop  and  Living- 
ston were  personally  unpopular.  Throop  had  the  manners 
of  DeWitt  Clinton  without  a  tithe  of  his  ability,  and  Liv- 
ingston, stripped  of  his  family's  intellectual  traits,  exhibited 


1S30]  DISHEARTENING  DEFEAT  311 

only  its  aristocratic  pride.  But  there  were  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  anti-masonic  success.  Among  other  things,  Francis 
Granger  had  become  chairman  of  an  anti-masonic  convention 
at  Philadelphia,  which  Weed  characterised  as  a  mistake. 
"The  men  from  New  York  who  urged  it  are  stark  mad,"  he 
wrote ;  "more  than  fifty  thousand  electors  are  now  balancing 
their  votes,  and  half  of  them  want  an  excuse  to  vote  against 
you."^  Whether  this  "mistake"  had  the  baleful  influence 
that  Weed  anticipated,  could  not,  of  course,  be  determined. 
The  returns,  however,  proved  a  serious  disappointment.*' 
Granger  had  carried  the  eighth  or  "infected  district"  by  the 
astounding  majority  of  over  seven  thousand  in  each  of  the 
first  five  districts.  In  the  sixth  district  the  anti-masonic  vote 
fell  over  four  thousand.  It  was  evident  that  the  Eastern 
masons,  who  had  until  now  acted  with  the  National  Repub- 
licans, preferred  the  rule  of  the  Regency  to  government  by 
Anti-Masons. 

The  year  that  witnessed  this  disheartening  defeat  of  the 
Anti-Masons,  welcomed  into  political  life  a  young  man  of 
great  promise,  destined  to  play,  for  the  next  forty  years,  a 
conspicuous  part  in  the  history  of  his  country.  William 
Henry  Seward  was  twenty-nine  years  old  when  elected  to  the 
State  Senate;  but  to  all  appearances  he  might  have  been 
eight  years  younger.  He  was  small,  slender,  boyish,  punctil- 
ious in  attire,  his  blue  eyes  and  finely  moulded  chin  and 
mouth  giving  an  unconscious  charm  to  his  native  composure, 
which  attracted  with  a  magnetism  peculiarly  its  own;  but 
there  was  nothing  in  his  looks  or  manner  to  indicate  that 
the  chronicle  of  the  century  would  record  his  name  among 
the  country's  most  prominent  statesmen.  He  had  neither 
the  bold,  full  forehead  of  Marcy,  nor  the  tall,  commanding 
form  of  Talcott,  although  the  boyish  face  suggested  the  re- 
finement of  Butler's  features,  softened  by  the  blue  eyes  and 
light  sandy  hair.    The  only  noticeable  feature  was  the  nose, 

"  Thurlow  Weed  Barnes,  Life  of  Timrloto  Weed,  Vol.  2,  p.  39. 
"Throop,  128,842;  Granger,  120,361.— CifiJ  List,  State  of  New  York 
(1887),  p.  166. 


378  SEWAKD  AND  WEED  [Chap.  xxxm. 

neither  Roman  nor  Semitic,  but  long,  prominent  and  aggres- 
sive, with  nostrils  slightly  distended.  In  after  years,  the 
brow  grew  heavier,  the  eyes  more  deeply  set,  and  the  chin, 
slightly  drawn,  gave  greater  prominence  to  the  jaw  and  firm- 
ness to  the  mouth. 

In  1830,  Seward  had  not  yet  made  his  great  legal  contest 
in  the  Freeman  case,  setting  up  the  then  novel  and  unpopular 
defence  of  insanitj^,  and  establishing  himself  as  one  of  the 
ablest  and  grittiest  lawyers  in  the  State.  But  early  in  that 
year,  he  made  a  speech,  at  an  anti-masonic  conference,  which 
won  the  confidence  of  the  delegates  sufficiently  to  admit  him 
to  leadership  with  Thurlow  Weed,  Francis  Granger,  John  C. 
Spencer,  Frederick  Whittlesey,  William  H.  Maynard,  and 
Albert  H.  Tracj'.  He  was  the  youngest  man  in  the  council, 
younger  than  Whittlesey,  four  years  younger  than  Weed, 
and  eight  years  younger  than  Tracy.  Granger  and  John  G. 
Spencer  belonged  almost  to  an  earlier  generation.  Millard 
Fillmore  was  one  year  his  senior;  but  Fillmore,  whose  force 
and  feeling  made  for  conservatism,  had  not  yet  entered  that 
coterie  of  brilliant  anti-masonic  leaders. 

Seward  was  neither  precocious  nor  gifted  beyond  his  years. 
He  had  spirit  and  gifts,  with  sufficient  temper  and  stubborn- 
ness to  defend  him  against  impositions  at  home  or  in  col- 
lege; but  the  love  for  adventure  and  the  strenuous  life,  that 
characterised  Weed's  capricious  youth,  were  entirely  absent. 
As  a  boy.  Weed,  untidy  even  to  slovenliness,  explored  the 
mountain  and  the  valley,  drifted  among  the  resolute  lads  of 
the  town,  and  lingered  in  gardens  and  orchards,  infinitely 
lovable  and  capable  of  the  noblest  tenderness.  On  the  con- 
trary, Seward  was  precise,  self-restrained,  possessing  the 
gravity  and  stillness  of  a  youth  who  husbanded  his  resources 
as  if  conscious  of  physical  frailty,  yet  wholesome  and  gener- 
ous, and  once,  at  least,  splendidly  reckless  in  his  race  for  in- 
dependence of  a  father  who  denied  him  the  means  of  dressing 
in  the  fashion  of  other  college  students.  By  the  time  he 
reached  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  had  run  away  to  Georgia, 
taught  school  six  months,  studied  law  six  months,  and  grad- 


I 


1824]  THEIR  FIRST  MEETING  379 

uated  with  honour  from  Union  College.  Two  years  later,  in 
1822,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and,  having  accepted  a 
partnership  with  Elijah  Miller,  located  at  Auburn,  To  make 
this  arrangement  the  more  binding,  he  married  his  partner's 
daughter  and  became  a  member  of  his  family. 

Seward  retained  the  political  aflSliations  of  his  father,  who 
was  a  Republican  and  a  Bucktail,  until  the  journey  on  the 
canal  to  Auburn  opened  his  eyes  to  the  importance  of  inter- 
nal improvements.  This  so  completely  changed  him  into  a 
Clintonian,  that,  in  the  autumn  of  1824,  he  assailed  the  Al- 
bany Regency  with  great  vigour  and  voted  for  DeWitt  Clinton 
for  governor.  Four  years  later,  he  presided  over  a  state  con- 
vention of  young  National  Republicans,  favourable  to  the  re- 
election of  John  Quincy  Adams;  and  then  witnessed  that 
party's  defeat  and  dispersion  under  the  murderous  fire  of 
the  Jackson  forces,  aided  by  Southwick  and  Crary  on  the 
anti-masonic  ticket.  Seward  had  not  taken  kindly  to  the 
anti-masonic  party.  What  would  have  been  his  final  attitude 
toward  it  is  problematical  had  he  not  fallen  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Weed.  The  first  meeting  of  this  illustrious  pair,  a 
very  casual  meeting,  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1824  while 
Seward  was  passing  through  Rochester  on  his  return  from 
a  visit  to  Niagara  Falls.  A  wheel  of  the  coach  came  ofl*,  and 
among  the  curious  who  quickly  assembled  '*one  taller  and 
more  effective,  while  more  deferential  and  sympathising  than 
the  rest,"  says  Seward,  in  his  autobiography,  'ient  his  assist- 
ance."" This  was  Thurlow  Weed.  "My  acquaintance  with 
William  H.  Seward  grew  rapidly  on  subsequent  occasions," 
adds  Weed,  ''when  he  was  called  to  Rochester  on  profes- 
sional business.  Our  views  in  relation  to  public  affairs,  and 
our  estimate  of  public  men,  rarely  differed,  and  in  re- 
gard to  anti-Masonry  he  soon  became  imbued  with  my  own 
opinions."® 

This  was  the  key  that  opened  the  way  to  great  achieve- 
ment. Tracy  listened  to  others  and  was  lost;  Fillmore  finally 
^Autobiography  of  WiUiam  H.  Seward,  p.  56. 
*  AutoMography  of  Thurloic  Weed,  p.  137. 


380  SEWAKD  AND  WEED  [Chap,  xxxiii. 

preferred  the  judgment  of  his  associates  in  Washington,  and 
is  to-day  without  a  statue  even  in  his  own  home ;  but  Seward 
kept  closely  in  touch  with  the  man  whose  political  judgment 
inspired  him  with  confidence.  ''Come  now  and  let  us  reason 
together,"  said  Weed,  and  together  these  two  friends  worked 
out  the  policy  of  success.  '*I  saw  in  him,  in  a  remarkable 
degree,"  continued  Weed,  "rapidly  developing  elements  of 
character  which  could  not  fail  to  render  him  eminently  use- 
ful in  public  life.  I  discerned  also  unmistakable  evidences 
of  stern  integrity,  earnest  patriotism,  and  unswerving  fidel- 
ity. I  saw  also  in  him  a  rare  capacity  for  intellectual  labour, 
with  an  industry  that  never  tired  and  required  no  relaxa- 
tion; to  all  of  which  was  added  a  purity  and  delicacy  of 
habit  and  character  almost  feminine."^ 

In  his  Autobiography,  Seward  says  he  joined  the  anti- 
masonic  party  because  he  thought  it  the  only  active  political 
organisation  opposed  to  Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  whose  pol- 
icy seemed  to  him  to  involve  "not  only  the  loss  of  our  na- 
tional system  of  revenue,  and  of  enterprises  of  state  and  na- 
tional improvement,  but  also  the  future  disunion  of  the 
States,  and  ultimately  the  universal  prevalence  of  slavery."^" 
Once  an  Anti-Mason,  he  became,  like  Weed,  a  zealous  and  ag- 
gressive member  of  the  party.  He  embodied  its  creed  in  reso- 
lutions, he  attended  its  first  national  convention  at  Philadel- 
phia, he  visited  John  Quincy  Adams  at  Quincy — just  then  an 
anti-masonic  candidate  for  Congress — he  aided  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  and,  a  little  later, 
as  a  delegate  to  the  party's  second  national  convention  at 
Baltimore,  he  saw  Chief  Justice  Marshall  upon  the  platform, 
sat  beside  Thaddeus  Stevens,  and  voted  for  William  Wirt  as 
an  anti-masonic  candidate  for  President.  It  was  during  his 
attendance  upon  the  Philadelphia  convention  that  Thurlow 
Weed  had  him  nominated,  without  his  knowledge,  for  state 
senator.     "While  stopping  at  Albany  on  my  way  south,"  he 

'Autobiography  of  Thurloxo  Weed,  p.  423. 
^"Autobiography  of  William  H.  Seward,  p.  74. 


1824]  DISCERNING  A  GENIUS  381 

says/^  ''Weed  made  some  friendly  but  earnest  inquiries  con- 
cerning my  pecuniary  ability,  whether  it  was  sufficient  to 
enable  me  to  give  a  portion  of  my  time  to  public  office.  When 
I  answered  my  ability  was  sufficient,  but  I  had  neither  ex- 
pectation nor  wish  for  office,  he  replied  that  he  had  learned 
from  my  district  enough  to  induce  him  to  think  it  possible 
that  the  party  might  desire  my  nomination  to  the  Senate." 

Thurlow  Weed  had  many  claims  to  the  regard  of  his  con- 
temporaries, but  the  greatest  was  the  intelligence  that  en- 
abled him  to  discern  the  rising  genius  of  a  recruit  to  anti- 
Masonry  whose  name  was  to  help  make  illustrious  any  cause 
which  he  served. 

^^Autobiography  of  William  H.  Seicard,  p.  79. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

VAN  BUREN'S  ENEMIES  MAKE  HIM 
VICE  PRESIDENT 

1829-1832 

Martin  Van  Buren's  single  message  as  governor  exhib- 
ited a  knowledge  of  conditions  and  needs  that  must  rank  it 
among  the  ablest  state-papers  in  the  archives  of  the  capitol. 
Unlike  some  of  his  predecessors,  with  their  sentences  of 
stilted  formality,  he  wrote  easily  and  with  vigour.  His  mes- 
sage, however,  was  marred  by  the  insincerity  which  shows  the 
politician.  He  approved  canals,  but,  by  cunningly  advising 
"the  utmost  prudence"  in  taking  up  new  enterprises,  he 
coolly  disparaged  the  Chenango  project;  he  shrewdly  rec- 
ommended the  choice  of  presidential  electors  by  general 
ticket  instead  of  by  congressional  districts,  knowing  that  op- 
position to  the  change  died  with  DeWitt  Clinton.  With  full 
knowledge  of  what  he  himself  had  done,  in  the  last  campaign, 
in  urging  upon  John  A.  Hamilton  the  necessity  of  raising 
funds,  he  boldly  attacked  the  use  of  money  in  elections,  pro- 
posing "the  imposition  of  severe  penalties  upon  the  advance 
of  money  by  individuals  for  any  purposes  connected  with 
elections  except  the  single  one  of  printing."  It  is  not  sur- 
prising, perhaps,  that  a  man  of  Van  Buren's  personal  ambi- 
tion found  himself  often  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  his  own 
career,  to  make  his  public  devotion  to  principle  radically  dif- 
ferent from  his  practice;  but  it  is  amazing  that  he  should 
thus  brazenly  assume  the  character  of  a  reformer  before  the 
ink  used  in  writing  Hamilton  was  dry. 

The  prominent  feature  of  Van  Buren's  message  was  the 
bank  question,  which,  to  do  him  credit,  he  discussed  with 

383 


I 


1829]  TWO   MONTHS   A  GOVEKNOR  38a 

courage,  urging  a  general  law  for  chartering  banks  without 
the  payment  of  money  bonus,  and  declaring  that  the  only 
concern  of  the  State  should  be  to  make  banks  and  their  cir- 
culation secure.  In  accord  with  this  suggestion,  he  sub- 
mitted the  ''safety  fund"  project,  subsequently  enacted  into 
law,  providing  that  all  banks  should  contribute  to  a  fund,  ad- 
ministered under  state  supervision,  to  secure  dishonoured 
banknotes.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  force  in  Van  Buren's 
reasoning,  and  the  New  York  City  banks,  which,  at  first,  de- 
clined to  recharter  under  the  law,  finally  accepted  the  scheme 
with  apparent  cheerfulness.  Had  the  real  test,  which  came 
with  the  hard  times  of  1837,  not  broken  it  down.  Van  Buren's 
confidence  in  the  project  might  have  continued.  After  that 
catastrophe,  which  was  destined  to  prove  his  Waterloo,  he 
had  confidence  in  nothing  except  gold  and  silver. 

As  anticipated.  Van  Buren's  inauguration  as  governor  pre- 
ceded his  appointment  as  secretary  of  state  under  President 
Jackson  only  seventy  days.  It  gave  him  barely  time  grace- 
fully to  assume  the  duties  of  one  position  before  taking  up 
those  of  the  other.  But,  in  making  the  change,  he  did  not 
forget  to  keep  an  anchor  to  windward  by  having  the  amiable 
and  timid  Charles  E.  Dudley  succeed  him  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  Dudley  had  the  weakness  of  many  cultured, 
charming  men,  who  are  without  personal  ambition  or  execu- 
tive force.  He  was  incapable  of  taking  part  in  debate,  or 
of  exerting  any  perceptible  influence  upon  legislation  in  the 
committee-room.  Nevertheless,  he  was  sincere  in  his  friend- 
ships; and  the  opinion  obtained  that  if  Van  Buren  had  de- 
sired for  any  reason  to  return  to  the  Senate,  Dudley  would 
have  gracefully  retired  in  his  favour. 

The  appointments  of  Green  C.  Bronson  as  attorney-gen- 
eral, and  Silas  Wright  as  comptroller  of  state,  atoned  for 
Dudley's  election;  for  they  brought  conspicuously  to  the 
front  two  men  whose  unusual  ability  greatly  honoured  the 
State.  Bronson  had  already  won  an  enviable  reputation  at 
the  bar  of  Oneida  County.  He  was  now  forty  years  old,  a 
stalwart  in  the  Jackson  party,  bold  and  resolute,  with  a 


384  VAN  BUEEN'S  ENEMIES         [Chap,  xxxiv. 

sturdy  vigour  of  intellect  that  was  to  make  him  invaluable  to 
the  Kegency.  He  had  been  a  Clintonian  surrogate  of  his 
county  and  a  Clintonian  member  of  the  Assembly  in  1822, 
but  he  had  changed  since  then,  and  his  present  appointment 
was  to  give  him  twenty-two  years  of  continuous  public  life 
as  a  Democrat,  lifting  him  from  justice  to  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  transferring  him  finally  to  the  Court  of 
Appeals. 

Silas  Wright  was  a  younger  man  than  Bronson,  not  yet 
thirty-five  years  old ;  but  his  admittance  to  the  Regency  com- 
pletely filled  the  great  gap  left  by  Marcy's  retirement.  Like 
Marcy,  he  was  large  and  muscular,  although  with  a  face  of 
more  refinement ;  like  Marcy,  too,  he  dressed  plainly.  He  had 
an  affable  manner  stripped  of  all  affectation.  From  his  first 
entrance  into  public  life,  he  had  shown  a  great  capacity  for 
the  administration  of  affairs.  He  looked  like  a  great  man. 
His  unusually  high,  square  forehead  indicated  strength  of 
intellect,  and  his  lips,  firmly  set,  but  round  and  full,  gave 
the  impression  of  firmness,  with  a  generous  and  gentle  dis- 
position. There  was  no  evidence  of  brilliancy  or  daring. 
Nor  did  he  have  a  politician's  face,  such  as  Van  Buren's. 
Even  in  the  closing  years  of  Van  Buren's  venerable  life,  when 
people  used  often  to  see  him,  white-haired  and  bright-eyed, 
walking  on  Wall  Street  arm  in  arm  with  his  son  John,  his 
was  still  the  face  of  a  master  diplomatist.  Wright,  on  the 
other  hand,  looked  more  like  a  strong,  fearless  business  man. 
His  manner  of  speaking  was  not  unlike  Rufus  King's.  He 
spoke  slowly,  without  rhetorical  embellishment,  or  other 
arts  of  the  orator;  but,  unlike  King,  he  had  an  unpleasant 
voice;  nevertheless,  if  one  may  accept  the  opinion  of  a  con- 
temporary and  an  intimate,  "there  was  a  subdued  enthu- 
siasm in  his  style  of  speaking  that  was  irresistibly  captivat- 
ing." The  slightly  rasping  voice  was  "almost  instantly  for- 
gotten in  the  beauty  of  his  argument,"  which  was  "clear,  for- 
cible, logical  and  persuasive."^ 

Silas  Wright  had  already  been  in  public  life  eight  years, 
*  John  S.  Jenkins,  Lives  of  the  Governors  of  New  York,  p.  790. 


1795-1829]  SILAS   WEIGHT  385 

first  as  surrogate  of  St.  Lawreoce  County,  afterward  as 
state  senator,  and  later  as  a  member  of  Congress.  He  had 
also  increased  his  earnings  at  the  bar  by  holding  the  offices 
of  justice  of  the  peace,  town  clerk,  inspector  of  schools,  and 
postmaster  at  Canton.  From  the  outset,  he  had  allied  him- 
self with  the  Regency  party,  and,  with  unfailing  regularity 
he  had  supported  all  its  measures,  even  those  which  his  bet- 
ter judgment  opposed.  His  ability  and  gentle  manners,  too, 
apparently  won  the  people;  for,  although  St.  Lawrence  was 
a  Clintonian  stronghold,  a  majority  of  its  voters  believed  in 
their  young  office-holder — a  fact  that  was  the  more  note- 
worthy since  he  had  broken  faith  with  them.  In  the  cam- 
paign of  1S23,  he  favoured  the  choice  of  presidential  electors 
by  the  people;  afterward,  in  the  Senate,  he  voted  against 
the  measure.  So  bitter  was  the  resentment  that  followed 
this  bill's  defeat,  that  many  of  the  seventeen  senators,  who 
voted  against  it,  ever  afterward  remained  in  private  life. 
But  Wright  was  forgiven,  and,  two  years  later,  sent  to  Con- 
gressj  where  his  public  career  really  began.  In  a  bill  finally 
amended  into  the  tariff  act  of  1828,  he  sought  to  remove  the 
complaint  of  manufacturers  that  the  tariff  of  1824  was  par- 
tial to  iron  interests,  and  the  criticism  of  agriculturalists, 
that  the  woollens  bill,  of  1827,  favoured  the  manufacturer. 
In  this  debate,  he  gave  evidence  of  that  genius  for  legisla- 
tion which  was  destined  soon  to  shine  in  the  United  States 
Senate  at  a  time  when  some  of  the  fiercest  political  fights  of 
the  century  were  being  waged. 

It  is  evident  Van  Buren  did  not  appreciate  the  capacity  of 
Silas  Wright  in  1831;  otherwise,  instead  of  William  L. 
Marcy,  Wright  would  have  succeeded  Nathan  Sanford  in  the 
United  States  Senate.^    Marcy  had  made  an  excellent  state 

=  "Marcy  was  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Wrig-ht  as  state 
comptroller  and  United  States  senator.  Each  possessed  rare 
talents,  but  they  were  totally  dissimilar  in  mental  traits  and 
political  methods.  Both  were  statesmen  of  scrupulous  honesty, 
who  despised  jobbery.  Marcy  was  wily  and  loved  Intrigue. 
Wright  was  proverbially  open  and  frank.     Marcj--  never  trained  him- 


386  VAN  BUEEN'S  ENEMIES  [Chap,  xxxiv. 

comptroller ;  his  able  and  luminous  reports  had  revealed  the 
necessity  of  preserving  the  general  fund,  and  the  danger  of 
constructing  additional  lateral  canals.  As  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  also,  his  sound  judgment  had  won  him  an 
enviable  reputation,  especially  in  the  trial  of  the  Morgan 
abductors,  which  was  held  at  a  time  of  great  excitement  and 
intense  feeling.  But,  as  a  United  States  senator,  Marcy 
failed  to  realise  the  expectations  of  his  friends.  Very  likely 
two  years  were  insuflScient  to  test  fairly  his  legislative  capac- 
ity. Besides,  his  services,  however  satisfactory,  would  nat- 
urally be  dwarfed  in  the  presence  of  the  statesmen  then  en- 
gaged in  the  great  constitutional  debate  growing  out  of  the 
Foote  resolution,  limiting  the  sale  of  public  lands.  Congress 
was  rapidly  making  history ;  and  the  Senate,  lifted  into  great 
prominence  by  the  speeches  of  Webster  and  Hayne,  had  be- 
come a  more  difficult  place  than  ever  for  a  new  member.  At 
all  events,  Marcy  did  not  exhibit  the  parliamentary  spirit 
that  seeks  to  lead,  or  which  delights  in  the  struggles  of  the 
arena  where  national  reputations  are  made.  He,  moreover, 
had  abundant  opportunity.  Thomas  H,  Benton  says  that  the 
session  of  1832  became  the  most  prolific  of  party  topics  and 
party  contests  in  the  annals  of  Congress;  yet  Marcy  was 
dumb  on  those  subjects  that  were  interesting  every  one 
else. 

Even  when  the  great  opportunity  of  Marcy's  senatorial  ca- 
reer was  thrust  upon  him — the  defence  of  Van  Buren  at  the 
time  of  the  latter's  rejection  as  minister  to  Great  Britain — 
he  failed  signally.  The  controversy  growing  out  of  Jackson's 
cabinet  disagreements,  ostensibly  because  of  the  treatment  of 

self  to  be  a  public  speaker,  and  did  not  shine  in  the  hand-to-hand 
conflicts  of  a  body  that  was  lustrous  with  forensic  talents.  A 
man's  status  in  the  United  States  Senate  is  determined  by  the 
calibre  and  skill  of  the  opponents  who  are  selected  to  cross  weapons 
with  him  in  the  forum.  Wright  was  unostentatious,  studious, 
thoughtful,  grave.  WTienever  he  delivered  an  elaborate  speech  the 
Whigs  set  Clay,  Webster,  Ewing,  or  some  other  of  their  leaders  to 
reply  to  him." — H.  B.  Stanton,  Random  Recollections,  p.  39. 


1831]  A   HOSTILE    COMBINATION  387 

Mrs.  Eaton,  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  but  really  because 
of  Calhoun's  hostility  to  Van  Buren,  due  to  the  President's 
predilections  for  him  as  his  successor,  had  made  it  evident 
to  Van  Buren  that  an  entire  reorganisation  of  the  Cabinet 
should  take  place.  Accordingly,  on  April  11,  1831,  he  opened 
the  way,  by  voluntarily  and  chivalrously  resigning.  Presi- 
dent Jackson  soon  after  appointed  him  minister  to  England, 
and  Van  Buren  sailed  for  his  post.  But  when  the  question 
of  his  confirmation  came  up,  in  the  following  December,  Cal- 
houn and  his  friends,  joined  by  Webster  and  Clay,  formed 
a,  combination  to  defeat  it.  Calhoun's  opposition  was  simply 
the  enmity  of  a  political  rival,  but  Webster  sought  to  put  his 
antagonism  on  a  higher  level,  by  calling  Van  Buren  to  ac- 
count for  instructions  addressed  to  the  American  Minister 
at  London  in  regard  to  our  commercial  relations  with  the 
West  Indian,  Bahama,  and  South  American  colonies  of 
England. 

In  1825  Parliament  permitted  American  vessels  to  trade 
with  British  colonies,  on  condition  that  American  ports  be 
opened  within  a  year  to  British  vessels  on  the  same  terms 
as  to  American  vessels.  The  Adams  administration,  failing 
to  comply  with  the  statute  within  the  year,  set  up  a  counter 
prohibition,  which  was  in  force  when  Van  Buren,  wishing 
to  reopen  negotiations,  instructed  McLane,  the  American 
Minister  at  London,  to  say  to  England  that  the  United 
States  had,  as  the  friends  of  the  present  administration  con- 
tended at  the  time,  been  wrong  in  refusing  the  privileges 
granted  by  the  act  of  182.5,  but  that  our  ''views  have  been 
submitted  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  the  coun- 
sels by  which  your  conduct  is  now  directed  are  the  result  of 
the  judgment  expressed  by  the  only  earthly  tribunal  to  which 
the  late  administration  was  amenable  for  its  acts."  In  other 
words,  Van  Buren  had  introduced  party  contests  in  an  offi- 
cial dispatch,  not  brazenly  or  offensively,  perhaps,  but  with 
questionable  taste,  and,  for  this,  the  great  senators  combined 
and  spoke  against  him — Webster,  Clay,  Hayne,  Ewing  of 
Ohio,  Holmes  of  Maine,  and  seven  others — ''just  a  dozen  and 


388  VAN  BUKEN'S  ENEMIES  [Chap,  xxxiv. 

equal  to  a  full  jury,"  wrote  Benton.  Webster  said  he  would 
pardon  almost  anything  when  he  saw  true  patriotism  and 
sound  American  feeling,  but  he  could  not  forgive  the  sacri- 
fice of  these  to  party.  Clay  characterised  his  language  as 
that  of  an  humble  vassal  to  a  proud  and  haughty  lord,  pros- 
trating the  American  eagle  before  the  British  lion.  In  the 
course  of  his  remarks,  Clay  also  referred,  in  an  incidental 
way,  to  the  odious  system  of  proscription  practised  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  which,  he  alleged.  Van  Buren  had  intro- 
duced into  the  general  government. 

Only  four  senators  spoke  in  Van  Buren's  defence,  recalling 
the  weak  protest  made  in  the  Legislature  on  the  day  of  De- 
Witt  Clinton's  removal  as  canal  commissioner,  but  this  gave 
William  L.  Marcy  the  greater  opportunity  for  acquitting 
himself  with  glory  and  vindicating  his  friend.  It  was  not 
a  strong  argument  he  had  to  meet.  Van  Buren  had  been  un- 
fortunate in  his  language,  although  in  admitting  that  the 
United  States  was  wrong  in  refusing  the  privileges  offered 
by  the  British  law  of  1825,  he  did  nothing  more  than  had 
Gallatin,  whom  Adams  sent  to  England  to  remedy  the  same 
difficulty.  Furthermore,  by  assuming  a  more  conciliatory 
course  Van  Buren  had  been  entirely  successful.  To  Web- 
ster's suggestion  of  lack  of  patriotism,  and  to  Clay's  declara- 
tion that  the  American  eagle  had  been  prostrated  before  the 
British  lion,  Marcy  might  have  pointed  to  Van  Buren's  ex- 
alted patriotism  during  the  War  of  1812,  citing  the  conscrip- 
tion act,  which  he  drafted,  and  which  Benton  declared  the 
most  drastic  piece  of  war  legislation  ever  enacted  into  law. 
To  Clay's  further  charge,  that  he  brought  with  him  to  Wash- 
ington the  odious  system  of  proscription,  the  New  York  sen- 
ator could  truthfully  have  retorted  that  the  system  of  remov- 
als, inaugurated  by  Jackson,  was  in  full  swing  before  Van 
Buren  reached  the  national  capital ;  that  if  he  did  not  oppose 
it  he  certainly  never  encouraged  it ;  that  of  seventeen  foreign 
representatives,  the  Secretary  of  State  had  removed  only 
four;  and  that,  in  making  appointments  as  governor,  he 
never  departed  from  the  rule  of  refusing  either  to  displace 


1831]  MAECY'S   WEAK  DEFENCE  389 

competent  and  trustworthy  men,  or  to  appoint  the  dishonest 
and  incompetent.  He  could  also  have  read  Lorenzo  Hoyt's 
wail  that  Van  Buren  would  ^'not  lend  the  least  weight  of  his 
influence  to  displace  from  office  such  men  as  John  Duer," 
Adams'  appointee  as  United  States  attorney  at  New  York. 
But  Marcy  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  made  no  use  of  the 
abundant  material  at  hand,  out  of  which  he  might  have  con- 
structed a  brilliant  speech  if  not  a  perfect  defence.  Quite  on 
the  contrary  he  contented  himself  simply  with  replying  to 
Clay's  slur.  He  defended  the  practice  of  political  proscrip- 
tion by  charging  that  both  sides  did  it.  Ambrose  Spencer, 
he  said,  the  man  whom  Clay  was  now  ready  to  honour,  had 
begun  it,  and  he  himself  ''saw  nothing  wrong  in  the  rule  that 
to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  of  the  enemy." 

If  the  conspiracy  of  distinguished  statesmen  to  defeat 
Van  Buren's  confirmation  was  shallow  and  in  bad  taste, 
Marcy's  defence  was  scarcely  above  the  standard  of  a  ward 
politician.  Indeed,  the  attempted  defence  of  his  friend  be- 
came the  shame  of  both;  since  it  forever  fixed  upon  Marcy 
the  odium  of  enunciating  a  vicious  principle  that  continued 
to  corrupt  American  political  life  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, and  confirmed  the  belief  that  Van  Buren  was  an  invet- 
erate spoilsman.' 

Probably  an  abler  defence  would  in  no  wise  have  changed 
the  result.  From  the  first  a  majority  of  senators  had  op- 
posed Van  Buren's  confirmation,  several  of  whom  refrained 
from  voting  to  afford  Vice  President  Calhoun  the  exquisite 
satisfaction  of  giving  the  casting  vote.  "It  will  kill  him, 
sir,  kill  him  dead,"  Calhoun  boasted  in  Benton's  hearing; 
"he  will  never  kick,  sir,  never  kick."  This  was  the  thought 
of  other  opponents.  But  Thomas  H.  Benton  believed  other- 
wise.   "You  have  broken  a  minister  and  elected  a  Vice  Presi- 

'  "To  this  celebrated  and  execrable  defence  Van  Buren  owes  much 
of  the  later  and  unjust  belief  that  he  was  an  inveterate  spoilsman. 
Benton  truly  says  that  Van  Buren's  temper  and  judgment  were 
both  against  it." — Edward  M.  Shepard,  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren, 
p.  233. 


590  VAN  BUEEN'S  ENEMIES  [Chap,  xxxiv. 

dent,"  he  said.  "The  people  will  see  nothing  in  it  but  a  com- 
bination of  rivals  against  a  competitor." 

This  also  was  the  prophecy  of  Thurlow  Weed.  While  the 
question  of  rejection  was  still  under  consideration,  that 
astute  editor  declared  "it  would  change  the  complexion  of 
his  prospects  from  despair  to  hope.  His  presses  would  set 
up  a  fearful  howl  of  proscription.  He  would  return  home  as 
a  persecuted  man,  throw  himself  upon  the  sympathy  of  the 
party,  be  nominated  for  Vice  President,  and  huzzaed  into 
ofiQce  at  the  heels  of  General  Jackson."*  On  the  evening  Van 
Buren  heard  of  his  rejection,  in  London,  Lord  Auckland, 
afterward  governor-general  of  India,  said  to  him :  "It  is  an 
advantage  to  a  public  man  to  be  the  subject  of  an  outrage." 

In  New  York,  Van  Buren's  party  took  his  rejection  as 
the  friends  of  DeWitt  Clinton  had  taken  his  removal  as 
canal  commissioner.  Indignation  meetings  were  held  and 
addresses  voted.  In  stately  words  and  high-sounding  sen- 
tences, the  Legislature  addressed  the  President,  promising 
to  avenge  the  indignity  offered  to  their  most  distinguished 
fellow  citizen ;  to  which  Jackson  replied  with  equal  warmth 
and  skill,  assuming  entire  responsibility  for  the  instructions 
given  the  American  minister  at  London  and  for  removals 
from  office ;  and  acquitting  the  Secretary  of  State  of  all  par- 
ticipation in  the  occurrences  between  himself  and  Calhoun. 
He  had  called  Van  Buren  to  the  State  Department,  the 
President  said,  to  meet  the  general  wish  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  his  signal  success  had  not  only  justified  his  selec- 
tion, but  his  public  services  had  in  nowise  diminished  con- 
fidence in  his  integrity  and  great  ability.  This  blare  of 
trumpets  set  the  State  on  fire;  and  various  plans  were  pro- 
posed for  wiping  out  the  insult  of  the  Senate.  Some  sug- 
gested Dudley's  resignation  and  Van  Buren's  re-election, 
that  he  might  meet  his  slanderers  face  to  face;  others  thought 
he  should  be  made  governor;  but  the  majority,  guided  by 
the  wishes  of  the  Cabinet,  and  the  expression  of  friends  in 

*  Thurlow  Weed  Barnes,  Life  of  Thurlow  Weed,  Vol.  1,  p.  375. 


1832]  A  WAEM  WELCOME  391 

other  States,  insisted  that  his  nomination  as  Vice  President 
would  strengthen  the  ticket  and  open  the  way  to  the  Presi- 
dency in  1836. 

When,  therefore,  the  Democratic  national  convention  met 
at  Baltimore,  in  May,  1832,  only  one  name  was  seriously 
considered  for  Vice  President.  Van  Buren  had  opponents 
in  P.  P.  Barbour  of  Virginia  and  Richard  M.  Johnson  of 
Kentucky,  but  his  friends  had  the  convention.  On  the  first 
ballot,  he  received  two  hundred  and  sixty  votes  out  of  three 
hundred  and  twenty-six.  Barbour  had  forty,  Johnson 
twenty-six.  Delegates  understood  that  they  must  vote  for 
Van  Buren  or  quarrel  with  Jackson. 

Van  Buren  returned  from  London  on  July  5.  New 
York  was  filled  with  a  multitude  to  welcome  him  back.  At 
a  great  dinner,  ardent  devotion,  tempered  by  decorum, 
showed  the  loyalty  of  old  neighbours,  in  whose  midst  he  had 
lived,  and  over  whom  he  had  practically  reigned  for  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century.  Instead  of  killing  him,  the  Senate's 
rejection  had  swung  open  a  wider  door  for  his  entrance  to 
the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people, 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
FORMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY 

1831-1834 

The  campaign  of  1832  seemed  to  be  without  an  issue,  save 
Van  Buren's  rejection  as  Minister  to  Great  Britain,  and 
Jackson's  wholesale  removals  from  office.  Yet  it  was  a 
period  of  great  unrest.  The  debate  of  Webster  and  Hayne 
had  revealed  two  sharply  defined  views  separating  the  North 
and  the  South;  and,  although  the  compromise  tariflf  act  of 
1832,  supported  by  all  parties,  and  approved  by  the  Presi- 
dent, had  temporarily  removed  the  question  of  Protection 
from  the  realm  of  discussion,  the  decided  stand  in  favour 
of  a  State's  power  to  annul  an  act  of  Congress  had  made  a 
profound  impression  in  the  North.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  organise  a  Clay  party 
and,  to  this  end,  a  state  convention  of  National  Republicans 
assembled  in  Albany  in  June,  1831,  selected  delegates  to  a 
convention,  held  in  Baltimore  in  December,  which  unani 
mously  nominated  Henry  Clay  for  President.  The  Anti 
Masons,  who  had  previously  nominated  William  Wirt,  of 
Maryland,  and  were  in  practical  accord  with  the  National 
Republicans  on  all  questions  relating  to  federal  authority, 
agreed  to  join  them,  if  necessary,  to  sustain  these  principles. 

A  new  issue,  however,  brought  them  together  with  great 
suddenness.  Though  the  charter  of  the  United  States  Bank 
did  not  expire  until  1836,  the  subject  of  its  continuance  had 
occupied  public  attention  ever  since  President  Jackson,  in 
his  first  inaugural  address,  raised  the  question  of  its  consti- 
tutionality ;  and  when  Congress  convened,  in  December,  1831, 
the  bank  applied  for  an  extension  of  its  charter.      Louis 

392 


1832]  THE   UNITED   STATES  BANK  393 

McLane,  then  secretary  of  the  treasury,  advised  the  presi- 
dent of  the  bank  that  Jackson  would  approve  its  charter,  if 
certain  specified  modifications  were  accepted.  These  changes 
proved  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  bank;  but  Webster  and 
Clay  declared  that  the  subject  had  assumed  aspects  too 
decided  in  the  public  mind  and  in  Congress,  to  render  any 
compromise  or  change  of  front  expedient  or  desirable. 
Later  in  the  session,  the  bill  for  the  bank's  recharter  passed 
both  branches  of  Congress.  Then  came  the  President's  veto. 
The  act  and  the  veto  amounted  to  an  appeal  to  the  people, 
and  in  an  instant  the  country  was  on  fire. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  anti-masonic  state  convention, 
confident  of  the  support  of  all  elements  opposed  to  the  re- 
election of  Andrew  Jackson,  met  at  Utica  on  June  21,  1832. 
Albert  H.  Tracy  of  Buffalo  became  its  chairman.  After  he 
had  warmed  the  delegates  into  enthusiastic  applause  by  his 
happy  and  cogent  reasons  for  the  success  of  the  party,  Fran- 
cis Granger  was  unanimously  renominated  for  governor,  with 
Samuel  Stevens  for  lieutenant-governor.  The  convention 
also  announced  an  electoral  ticket,  equally  divided  between 
Anti-Masons  and  National  Republicans,  headed  by  James 
Kent  ^  and  John  C.  Spencer.  In  the  following  month,  the 
National  Republicans  adopted  the  anti-masonic  state  and 
electoral  tickets.  It  looked  like  a  queer  combination,  a 
''Siamese  twin  party"  it  was  derisively  called,  in  which 
somebody  was  to  be  cheated.  But  the  embarrassment,  if 
any  existed,  seems  to  have  been  fairly  overcome  by  Thurlow 
Weed,  who  patiently  traversed  the  State  harmonising  con- 
flicting opinions  in  the  interest  of  local  nominations. 

Meantime,  the  Van  Buren  leaders  proceeded  with  rare 
caution.  There  had  been  some  alarming  defections,  notably 
the  secession  of  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  now 
edited  by  James  Watson  Webb,  and  the  refusal  of  Erastus 

^  "Chancellor  Kent's  bitter,  narrow,  and  unintelligent  politics  were 
in  singular  contrast  with  his  extraordinary  legal  equipment  and  his 
professional  and  literary  accomplishments." — Edward  M.  Shepard, 
Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  p.  246. 


394         FOKMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PAKTY     [Chap.  xxxv. 

Root  longer  to  follow  the  Jackson  standard.  Samuel  Young 
had  also  been  out  of  humour.  Young  declared  for  Clay  in 
1824,  and  had  inclined  to  Adams  in  1828.  It  was  in  his 
heart  also  to  rally  to  the  support  of  Clay  in  1832.  But, 
looking  cautiously  to  the  future,  he  could  not  see  his  way  to 
renounce  old  associates  altogether;  and  so,  as  evidence 
of  his  return,  he  published  an  able  paper  in  defence  of  the 
President's  veto.  There  is  no  indication,  however,  that 
Erastus  Root  was  penitent.  He  had  been  playing  a  double 
game  too  long,  and  although  his  old  associates  treated  him 
well,  electing  him  speaker  of  the  Assembly  in  1827,  1828,  and 
again  in  1830,  he  could  not  overlook  their  failure  to  make 
him  governor.  Finally,  after  accepting  a  nomination  to 
Congress,  his  speeches  indicated  that  he  was  done  forever 
with  the  party  of  Jackson. 

The  Republican  convention,  which  met  at  Herkimer,  in 
September,  1832,  nominated  William  L.  Marcy  for  governor. 
Marcy  had  reluctantly  left  the  Supreme  Court  in  1831 ;  and 
he  did  not  now  take  kindly  to  giving  up  the  United  States 
Senate,  since  the  veto  message  had  made  success  in  the 
State  doubly  doubtful.  But  no  other  candidate  excited  any 
interest.  Enos  T.  Throop  had  been  practically  ridiculed 
into  retirement.  He  was  nicknamed  *'SmalMight,"  and  the 
longer  he  served  the  smaller  and  the  more  unpopular  he  be- 
came. If  we  may  accept  the  judgment  of  contemporaries, 
he  lacked  all  the  engaging  qualities  that  usually  character- 
ise a  public  official,  and  possessed  all  the  faults  which  ex- 
aggerate limited  ability. 

Marcy  had  both  tact  and  ability,  but  his  opposition  to 
the  Chenango  canal  weakened  him  in  that  section  of  the 
State.  The  Chenango  project  had  been  a  thorn  in  the  Re- 
gency's side  ever  since  Francis  Granger,  in  1827,  forced  a 
bill  for  its  construction  through  the  Assembly,  changing 
Chenango  from  a  reliable  Jackson  county  to  a  Granger 
stronghold;  but  Van  Buren  now  took  up  the  matter,  as- 
suring the  people  that  the  next  Legislature  should  pass  a 
law  for  the  construction  of  the  canal,  and  to  bind  the  con- 


1 


1832J  MAKCY'S  PATCH  395 

tract  Edward  P.  Livingston,  with  his  family  pride  and  lack 
of  gifts,  was  unceremoniously  set  aside  as  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor for  John  Tracy  of  Chenango.  This  bargain,  however, 
did  not  relieve  Marcy's  distress.  He  still  had  little  confi- 
dence in  his  success.  ''I  have  looked  critically  over  the 
State,"  he  wrote  Jesse  Hoyt  on  the  first  day  of  October, 
"and  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  probably  we  shall  be 
beaten.  The  United  States  Bank  is  in  the  field,  and  I  can 
not  but  fear  the  effect  of  fifty  or  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  expended  in  conducting  the  election  in  such  a  city 
as  New  York." 

This  was  a  good  enough  excuse,  perhaps,  to  give  Hoyt. 
But  Marcy's  despair  was  due  more  to  the  merciless  ridicule 
of  Thurlow  Weed's  pen  than  to  the  bank's  money.  I  Marcy 
had  thoughtlessly  included,  in  one  of  his  bills  for  court  ex- 
penses, an  item  of  fifty  cents  paid  for  mending  his  panta- 
loons; and  the  editor  of  the  Evening  Journal,  in  his  inimi- 
table wa}',  made  the  "Marcy  pantaloons"  and  the  "Marcy 
patch"  so  ridiculous  that  the  slightest  reference  to  it  in 
any  company  raised  immoderate  laughter  at  the  expense  of 
the  candidate  for  governor.  At  Rochester,  the  Anti-Masons 
suspended  at  the  top  of  a  long  pole  a  huge  pair  of  black 
trousers,  with  a  white  patch  on  the  seat,  bearing  the  figure 
50  in  red  paint.  Reference  to  the  unfortunate  item  often 
came  upon  him  suddenlv.  "Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen," 
shouted  the  driver  of  a  stage-coach  on  which  Marcy  had 
taken  passage,  "hold  on  tight,  for  this  hole  is  as  large  as 
the  one  in  the  Governor's  breeches."  All  this  was  telling 
hard  upon  Marcy's  spirits  and  the  party's  confidence.  Jesse 
Hoyt  wrote  him  that  something  must  be  done  to  silence  the 
absurd  cry;  but  the  candidate  was  without  remedy.  "The 
law  provided  for  the  payment  of  the  judge's  expenses,"  he 
said,  "and  while  on  this  business  some  work  was  done  on 
pantaloons  for  which  the  tailor  charged  fifty  cents.  It  was 
entered  on  the  account,  and  went  into  the  comptroller's 
hands  without  a  particle  of  reflection  as  to  how  it  would 
appear  in  print."     There  was  no  suggestion  of  dishonesty. 


396        FORMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY     [Chap.  xxxv. 

Weed  was  too  skilful  to  raise  a  point  that  might  be  open 
to  discussion,  but  he  kept  the  whole  State  in  laughter  at 
the  candidate's  expense.  Marcy  felt  so  keenly  the  ridiculous 
position  in  which  his  patched  pantaloons  put  him  that,  al- 
though he  usually  relished  jokes  on  himself,  "the  patch" 
was  a  distressing  subject  long  after  he  had  been  thrice 
elected  governor. 

The  Granger  forces  had,  however,  something  more  influ- 
ential to  overcome  than  a  "Marcy  patch."  Very  early  in  the 
campaign  it  dawned  upon  the  bankers  of  the  State  that,  if 
the  United  States  Bank  went  out  of  business,  government 
deposits  would  come  to  them ;  and  from  that  moment  every 
jobber,  speculator  and  money  borrower,  as  well  as  every 
bank  officer  and  director,  rejoiced  in  the  veto.  The  preju- 
dices of  the  people,  always  easily  excited  against  moneyed 
corporations,  had  already  turned  against  the  "monster 
monopoly,"  with  its  exclusive  privileges  for  "endangering 
the  liberties  of  the  country,"  and  now  the  banks  joined  them 
in  their  crusade.  In  other  words,  the  Jackson  party  was 
sustained  by  banks  and  the  opponents  of  banks,  by  men  of 
means  and  men  without  means,  by  the  rich  and  the  poor. 
It  was  a  great  combination,  and  it  resulted  in  the  over- 
whelming triumph  of  Marcy  and  the  Jackson  electoral 
ticket.2 

The  western  anti-masonic  counties  gave  their  usual  ma- 
jorities for  Francis  Granger,  but  New  York  City  and  the 
districts  bordering  the  Hudson,  with  several  interior  coun- 

'  "On  one  important  question,  Mr.  Weed  and  I  were  antipodes. 
Believing-  that  a  currency  in  part  of  paper,  kept  at  par  with  specie, 
and  current  in  every  part  of  our  country,  was  indispensable,  I  was 
a  zealous  advocate  of  a  National  Bank;  which  he  as  heartily  de- 
tested, believing-  that  its  supporters  would  always  be  identified  in 
the  popular  mind  with  aristocracy,  monopoly,  exclusive  privileges, 
etc.  He  attempted,  more  than  once,  to  overbear  my  convictions  on 
this  point,  or  at  least  preclude  their  utterance,  but  was  at  length 
brought  apparently  to  comprehend  that  this  was  a  point  on  which 
we  must  agree  to  differ." — Horace  Greeley,  Recollections  of  a  Busy 
Life,  p.  314. 


1832]  A  DEPKESSING  DEFEAT  397 

ties,  wiped  them  out  and  left  the  Jackson  candidate  ten 
thousand  ahead.^ 

This  second  defeat  of  Francis  Granger  had  a  depressing 
influence  upon  his  party.  It  had  been  a  contest  of  giants. 
Webster's  great  speeches  in  support  of  the  United  States 
Bank  were  accepted  as  triumphant  answers  to  the  argu- 
ments of  the  veto  message,  but  nothing  seemed  capable  of 
breaking  the  solid  Jackson  majorities  in  the  eastern  and 
southern  counties ;  and,  upon  the  assembling  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, in  January,  1833,  signs  of  disintegration  were  appar- 
ent among  the  Anti-Masons.  Albert  H.  Tracy,  despairing 
of  success,  began  accepting  interviews  with  Martin  Van 
Buren,  who  sought  to  break  anti-Masonry  by  conciliating 
its  leaders.  It  was  the  voice  of  the  tempter.  Tracy  listened 
and  then  became  a  missionary,  inducing  John  Birdsall  and 
other  members  of  the  Legislature  to  join  him.  Tracy  had 
been  an  acknowledged  leader.  He  was  older,  richer,  and  of 
larger  experience  than  most  of  his  associates,  and,  in  ap- 
pealing to  him.  Van  Buren  exhibited  the  rare  tact  that  char- 
acterised his  political  methods.  But  the  Senator  from  Buf- 
falo could  not  do  what  Van  Buren  wanted  him  to  do;  he 
could  not  win  Seward  or  capture  the  Evening  Journal.  ''We 
had  both  been  accustomed  for  years,"  says  Thurlow  Weed, 
^'to  allow  Tracy  to  do  our  political  thinking,  rarely  differ- 
ing from  him  in  opinion,  and  never  doubting  his  fidelity. 
On  this  occasion,  however,  we  could  not  see  things  from  his 
standpoint,  and,  greatly  to  his  annoyance,  we  determined 
to  adhere  to  our  principles."* 

'William  L.  Marcy,  166,410;  Francis  Granger,  156,672.  Civil  List, 
State  of  New  York,  1887,  p.  166. 

*  Autobiography  of  Thurlotv  Weed,  p.  421.  Seward,  in  his  AutoM- 
ography,  says  of  Tracy,  p.  166:  "Albert  H.  Tracy  is  .  .  .  a  man  of 
original  genius,  of  great  and  varied  literary  acquirements,  of  re- 
fined tastes,  and  high  and  honourable  principles.  He  seems  the 
most  eloquent,  I  might  almost  say  the  only  eloquent  man  in  the 
Senate.  He  is  plainly  clothed  and  unostentatious.  Winning  in  his 
address  and  gifted  in  conversation,  you  would  fall  naturally  into 
the  habit  of  telling  him  all  your  weaknesses,  and  giving  him  unin- 


398        FOKMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY     [Chap.  xxxv. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  many  reasons  existed  well  cal- 
culated to  influence  Tracy's  action.  William  Wirt  had  car- 
ried only  Vermont,  and  Henry  Clay  had  received  but  forty- 
nine  out  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  electoral  votes.  Anti- 
Masonry  had  plainly  run  its  course.  It  aroused  a  strong  pub- 
lic sentiment  against  secret  societies,  until  most  of  the  lodges 
in  western  New  York  had  surrendered  their  charters;  but 
it  signally  failed  to  perpetuate  its  hold  upon  the  masses. 
The  surrendered  charters  were  soon  reissued,  and  the  insti- 
tution itself  became  more  popular  and  attractive  than  ever. 
These  disheartening  conditions  were  re-emphasised  in  the 
election  of  1833.  The  county  of  Washington,  before  an 
anti-masonic  stronghold,  returned  a  Jackson  assemblyman; 
and  the  sixth  district,  which  had  elected  an  anti-masonic 
senator  in  1829,  now  gave  a  Van  Buren  member  over  seven 
thousand  majority.  But  the  most  surprising  change  oc- 
curred in  the  eighth,  or  ''infected  district."  Three  years 
before  it  had  given  Granger  thirteen  thousand  majority; 
now  it  returned  Tracy  to  the  Senate  by  less  than  two  hun- 
dred. For  a  long  time  his  election  was  in  doubt.  Of  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  assemblymen,  one  hundred 
and  four  belonged  to  the  Jackson  party,  and  of  the  eight 
senators  elected  Tracy  alone  represented  the  opposition. 

It  was  certainly  not  an  encouraging  outlook,  and  the  lead- 
ers, after  full  consultation,  virtually  declared  the  anti- 
masonic  party  dissolved.  But  this  did  not,  however,  mean 
an  abandonment  of  the  field.  It  was  impossible  for  men 
who  believed  in  internal  improvements,  in  the  protection 
of  American  industries,  and  in  the  United  States  Bank,  to 
surrender  to  a  party  controlled  by  the  Albany  Regency, 
which  was  rapidly  drifting  into  hostility  to  these  great 
principles  and  into  the  acceptance  of  dangerous  state  rights* 

tentionally  your  whole  confidence.  He  is  undoubtedly  very  am- 
bitious; though  he  protests,  and  doubtless  half  the  time  believes, 
that  dyspepsia  has  humbled  all  his  ambition,  and  broken  the  vault- 
ings of  his  spirit.  I  doubt  not  that,  dyspepsia  taken  into  the  ac- 
count, he  will  be  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation." 


1834]  UNDER  A  NEW  NAME  399 

doctrines.  In  giving  up  anti-Masonry,  therefore,  Weed, 
Seward,  Granger,  Whittlesey,  Fillmore,  John  C.  Spencer, 
and  other  leaders,  simply  intended  to  let  go  one  name  and 
reorganise  under  another.  Several  Anti-Masons,  following 
the  lead  of  Tracy,  fell  by  the  way,  but  practically  all  the 
people  who  made  up  the  anti-masonic  and  National  Republi- 
can forces  continued  to  act  together. 

Several  events  of  the  year  aided  the  opposition  party.  The 
hostility  of  the  Jackson  leaders  to  internal  improvements 
aroused  former  Clintonians  who  believed  in  canals,  and  the 
widespread  financial  embarrassment  alarmed  commercial 
and  mercantile  interests.  They  resented  the  remark  of  the 
President  that  "men  who  trade  on  borrowed  capital  ought 
to  fail,"  and  the  bold  denial  that  "any  pressure  existed 
which  an  honest  man  should  regret."  Business  men,  cramped 
for  money,  or  already  bankrupt  because  the  United  States 
Bank,  stripped  of  its  government  deposits,  had  curtailed  its 
discounts,  did  not  listen  with  patience  or  amiability  to 
statements  of  such  a  character;  nor  were  they  inclined  to 
excuse  the  President's  action  on  the  theory  that  the  United 
States  Bank  had  cut  down  its  loans  to  produce  a  panic, 
and  thus  force  a  reversal  of  his  policy.  To  them  such  utter- 
ances seemed  to  evince  a  want  of  sympathy,  and  opposition 
orators  and  journals  took  advantage  of  the  situation  by 
eloquently  denouncing  a  policy  that  embarrassed  commerce 
and  manufactures,  throwing  people  out  of  employment  and 
bringing  suffering  and  want  to  the  masses. 

The  New  York  municipal  election  in  the  spring  of  1834 
plainly  showed  that  the  voters  resented  the  President's 
financial  policy.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
city,  the  people  were  to  elect  their  mayor,  and,  although 
purely  a  local  contest,  it  turned  upon  national  issues.  All 
the  elements  of  opposition  now  used  the  one  name  of  "Whig." 
Until  this  time  local  organisations  had  adopted  various 
titles,  such  as  "Anti-Jackson,"  "Anti-Mortgage,"  and  "Anti- 
Regency  ;"  but  the  opponents  of  Jackson  now  claimed  to  be 
the  true  successors  of  the  Whigs  of  1776,  calling  their  move- 


400        FOKMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY    [Chap.  xxxv. 

ment  a  revolution  against  the  tyranny  and  usurpation  of 
''King  Andrew."  They  raised  liberty  poles,  spoke  of  their 
opponents  as  Tories,  and  appropriated  as  emblems  the  na- 
tional flag  and  portraits  of  Washington. 

The  prospects  of  the  new  party  brightened,  too,  when  it 
nominated  for  mayor  Gulian  C.  Verplanck,  a  member  of 
Tammany  Hall,  a  distinguished  congressman  of  eight  years' 
service,  and,  until  then,  a  representative  of  the  Jackson 
party,  highly  esteemed  and  justly  popular.  Although  best 
known,  perhaps,  as  a  scholar  and  writer,  Verplanck's  active 
sympathies  early  led  him  into  politics.  He  entered  the  Whig 
party  and  the  mayoralty  campaign  with  high  hopes  of  suc- 
cess. He  led  the  merchants  and  business  men,  while  his 
opponent,  Cornelius  V.  R.  Lawrence,  also  a  popular  member 
of  Tammany,  rallied  the  mechanics  and  labouring  classes. 
The  spirited  contest,  characterised  by  rifled  ballot-boxes  and 
broken  heads,  revealed  at  once  its  national  importance.  If 
the  new  party  could  show  a  change  in  public  sentiment  in 
the  foremost  city  in  the  Union,  it  would  be  helpful  in  re- 
versing Jackson's  financial  policy.  So  the  great  issue  be- 
came a  cry  of  ''panic"  and  a  threat  of  "hard  times."  Like 
the  strokes  of  a  fire  bell  at  night,  it  alarmed  the  people, 
whose  confidence  began  to  waver  and  finally  to  give  way. 

The  evident  purpose  of  the  United  States  Bank  was  to 
<ireate,  if  possible,  the  fear  of  a  panic.  By  suddenly  cur- 
tailing its  loans,  ostensibly  because  of  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  it  brought  such  pressure  upon  the  state  banks  that 
a  suspension  of  specie  payment  seemed  inevitable.  To  re- 
lieve this  situation,  Governor  Marcy  and  the  Legislature, 
acting  with  great  promptness,  pledged  the  State's  credit  to 
the  banks,  should  the  exigency  require  such  aid,  to  the 
amount  of  six  million  dollars.  This  was  called  "Marcy's 
mortgage."  The  Whigs  stigmatised  it  as  a  pledge  of  the 
people's  property  for  the  benefit  of  money  corporations,  de- 
nouncing the  project  as  little  better  than  a  vulgar  swindle 
in  the  interest  of  the  Democratic  party.  Whether  Marcy's 
scheme  really  averted  the  threatened  calamity,  or  whether 


1834]  NOMINATION  OF  SEWARD  401 

the  United  States  Bank  had  already  carried  its  contraction 
as  far  as  it  intended,  it  is  certain  that  the  fear  of  a  panic 
served  its  purpose  in  the  campaign.  The  Whigs  became 
enthusiastic,  and,  as  the  United  States  Bank  now  began  re- 
lieving the  commercial  embarrassment  by  extending  its 
loans  and  giving  its  friends  in  New  York  special  advantages, 
the  party  felt  certain  of  victory.  When  the  polls  closed  the 
result  did  not  fully  realise  Whig  anticipations;  yet  it  dis- 
closed a  Democratic  majority,  cut  down  from  five  thousand 
to  two  hundred,  with  a  loss  of  the  Council.  Verplanck  had, 
indeed,  been  beaten  by  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  votes; 
but  the  Common  Council,  carrying  with  it  the  patronage  of 
the  city,  amounting  to  more  than  one  million  dollars  a  year, 
had  been  easily  won.  The  Democrats  had  the  shadow,  it 
was  said,  and  the  Whigs  the  substance. 

This  election,  and  other  successes  in  many  towns  through- 
out the  State,  greatly  encouraged  the  leaders  of  the  opposi- 
tion. A  convention  held  at  Syracuse,  in  August,  1834, 
adopted  the  title  of  ''Whig,"  and  the  new  party  exulted  in 
its  name.  To  add  to  the  enthusiasm,  Daniel  Webster  de- 
clared, in  a  letter,  that,  from  his  cradle,  he  had  "been  edu- 
cated in  the  principles  of  the  Whigs  of  '76."  The  New  York 
City  election  was  referred  to  as  the  '^Lexington"  of  the  revo- 
lution against  ''King  Andrew,"  as  its  prototype  was  against 
King  George. 

The  Whigs'  hope  of  success  was  heightened,  also,  by  the 
unanimous  nomination  of  William  H.  Seward  for  governor. 
Seward  was  now  thirty-three  years  of  age.  During  his  four 
-years  in  the  Senate,  political  expediency  neither  limited  nor 
controlled  his  opinions.  He  had  argued  for  reform  in  the 
military  system ;  he  had  favoured  the  abolition  of  imprison- 
ment for  debt;  he  had  vigorously  opposed  the  attacks  upon 
the  United  States  Bank  and  the  removal  of  the  deposits; 
he  had  antagonised  the  Chenango  canal  for  reasons  pre- 
sented by  Comptroller  Marcy,  and  he  gave  generously  of  his 
time  in  the  Court  of  Errors.  He  had  grown  into  a  statesman 
of  acknowledged  genius  and  popularity,  placing  himself  in 


402        FOKMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY     [Chap.  xxxv. 

sympathy  with  the  masses,  denouncing  misrule  and  sup- 
porting measures  of  reform.  Of  all  the  old  and  experienced 
members  of  the  Senate,  it  was  freely  admitted  that  none 
surpassed  him  in  a  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the  State,  or 
in  a  readiness  to  debate  leading  questions.  But,  well  fitted 
as  he  was,  he  did  not  solicit  the  privilege  of  being  a  candi- 
date for  governor.  On  the  contrary,  with  Weed  and  Whit- 
tlesey, he  tried  to  find  some  one  else.  Granger  preferred 
going  to  Congress;  Verplauck  had  not  yet  recovered  from 
the  chagrin  and  disappointment  of  losing  the  mayoralty; 
Maynard  was  dead,  and  James  Wadsworth  would  not  accept 
oflBce.  To  Seward  an  acceptance  of  the  nomination,  there- 
fore, appealed  almost  as  a  matter  of  duty. 

Silas  M.  Stilwell  of  New  York  became  the  candidate  for 
lieutenant-governor.  Stilwell  had  been  a  shoemaker,  and, 
until  the  organisation  of  the  Whig  party,  a  stalwart  sup- 
porter of  the  Regency,  occupying  a  conspicuous  place  as  an 
industrious  and  ambitious  member  of  the  Assembly.  When 
the  deposits  were  removed  and  a  panic  threatened  he  de- 
clared himself  a  Whig. 

Confidence  characterised  the  convention  which  nominated 
Seward  and  Stilwell.  Young  men  predominated,  and  their 
enthusiasm  was  aroused  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the  eloquence 
of  Peter  R.  Livingston,  their  venerable  chairman.  Like  a 
new  convert,  Livingston  prophesied  victory.  Livingston  had 
been  a  wheel-horse  in  the  party  of  Jefferson.  He  had  served 
in  the  Senate  with  Van  Buren ;  he  had  taken  a  leading  part 
in  the  convention  of  1821,  and  he  had  held,  with  distinction, 
the  speakership  of  the  Assembly  and  the  presidency  of  the 
Senate.  His  creed  was  love  of  republicanism  and  hatred  of 
Clinton.  At  one  time  he  was  the  faithful  follower,  the  en- 
thusiastic admirer,  almost  the  devotee  of  Van  Buren ;  and,  so 
long  as  the  Kinderhook  statesman  opposed  Clinton,  he 
needed  Livingston.  But,  when  the  time  came  that  Van 
Buren  must  conciliate  Clinton,  Livingston  was  dropped  from 
the  Senate.  The  consequences  were  far  more  serious  than 
Van  Buren  intended.    Livingston  was  as  able  as  he  was  elo- 


1834]  RED-HAIRED   MEN  403 

quent,  and  Van  Buren's  coalition  with  Clinton  quickly 
turned  Livingston's  ability  and  eloquence  to  the  support  of 
Clay.  Then  he  openly  joined  the  Whigs;  and  to  catch  his 
influence,  and  the  thrill  of  his  remarkable  voice,  they  made 
him  chairman  of  their  first  state  convention.  As  an  evidence 
of  their  enthusiasm,  the  whole  body  of  delegates,  with  music 
and  flags,  drove  from  Syracuse  to  Auburn,  twenty-six  miles, 
to  visit  their  young  candidate  for  governor. 

In  the  same  month  the  Democrats  renominated  Marcy  and 
John  Tracy,  strong  in  prestige  of  past  success  and  present 
power.  Instantly,  the  two  leading  candidates  were  con- 
trasted— Marcy,  the  mature  and  experienced  statesman ; 
Seward,  a  ''red-haired  3'oung  man,"  without  a  record  and  un- 
known to  fame.  Stilwell  was  told  to  ''stick  to  his  boots  and 
shoes ;"  and,  in  resentment,  tailors,  printers,  shoemakers,  and 
men  of  other  handicraft,  organised  in  support  of  "the  work- 
ing man"  against  the  "Jackson  Aristocrats."  In  answer  to 
the  Commercial  Advertiser's  sneer  that  Seward  was  "red- 
haired,"  William  L.  Stone,  with  felicitous  humour,  told  how 
Esau,  and  Cato,  Clovis,  William  Rufus,  and  Rob  Roy  not 
only  had  red  hair,  but  each  was  celebrated  for  having  it; 
how  Ossian  sung  a  "lofty  race  of  red-haired  heroes,"  how 
Venus  herself  was  golden-haired,  as  well  as  Patroclus  and 
Achilles.  "Thus  does  it  appear,"  the  article  concluded,  "that 
in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries,  from  Paradise  to  Dragon 
River,  has  red  or  golden  hair  been  held  in  highest  estima- 
tion. But  for  his  red  hair,  the  country  of  Esau  would  not 
have  been  called  Edom.  But  for  his  hair,  which  was  doubt- 
less red,  Samson  would  not  have  carried  away  the  gates  of 
Gaza.  But  for  his  red  hair,  Jason  would  not  have  navigated 
the  Euxine  and  discovered  the  Golden  Horn.  But  for  the  red 
hair  of  his  mistress,  Leander  would  not  have  swum  the  Hel- 
lespont. But  for  his  red  hair.  Narcissus  would  not  have 
fallen  in  love  with  himself,  and  thereby  become  immortal 
in  song.  But  for  his  red  hair  we  should  find  nothing  in  Van 
Buren  to  praise.  But  for  red  hair,  we  should  not  have  writ- 
ten this  article.  And,  but  for  his  red  hair,  William  H.  Sew- 


404        FORMATION  OF  THE  WHIG  PARTY     [Chap.  xxxv. 

ard  might  not  have  become  governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York!  Stand  aside,  then,  ye  Tories,  and  'Let  go  of  his 
hair.'  "= 

The  mottoes  of  this  campaign  illustrate  the  principles  in- 
volved in  it.  "Seward  and  Free  Soil,  or  Marcy  with  his  Mort- 
gage" was  a  favourite  with  the  Whigs.  "The  Monster  Bank 
Party"  became  the  popular  cry  of  Democrats,  to  which  the 
Whigs  retorted  with  "The  Party  of  Little  Monsters." 
"Marcy's  Pantaloons,"  "No  Nullification,"  and  "Union  and 
Liberty"  also  did  service.  Copper  medals  bearing  the  heads 
of  candidates  were  freely  distributed,  and  humourous  cam 
paign  songs,  set  to  popular  musoc,  began  to  be  heard. 

It  was  a  lively  campaign,  and  reports  of  elections  in  other 
States,  showing  gratifying  gains,  kept  up  the  hopes  of  W^higs. 
But,  at  the  end,  the  withering  majorities  in  Democratic 
strongholds  remained  unbroken,  re-electing  Marcy  and  Tracy 
by  thirteen  thousand  majority,®  and  carrying  every  senatorial 
district  save  the  eighth,  and  ninety-one  of  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-two  assemblymen.  The  Whigs  had  put  forward 
their  ablest  men  for  the  Legislature  and  for  Congress,  but, 
outside  of  those  chosen  in  the  infected  district,  few  appeared 
in  the  halls  of  legislation, either  at  Albany  or  at  Washington. 
Francis  Granger  went  to  Congress.  "He  has  had  a  fortunate 
escape  from  his  dilemma,  and  I  rejoice  at  it,"  wrote  Seward 
to  Thurlow  Weed.  "He  is  a  noble  fellow,  and  I  am  glad  that, 
if  we  could  not  make  him  what  we  wished,  we  have  been 
able  to  put  him  into  a  career  of  honour  and  usefulness."^ 

Seward  was  not  broken-hearted  over  his  defeat.  The  ma- 
jority against  him  was  not  so  large  as  Granger  encountered 
in  1832 ;  but  it  was  sufficiently  pronounced  to  send  him  back 
to  his  profession  with  the  feeling  that  his  principles  and 
opinions  were  not  yet  wanted.  "If  I  live,"  he  said  to  Weed, 
"and  ray  principles  ever  do  find  favour  with  the  people,  I 

'  F.  W.  Seward,  Life  of  W.  H.  Seward,  Vol.  1,  p.  238. 
•William   L.   Marcy,    181,905;    William  H.   Seward,   168,969.— CMl 
List,  State  of  New  York   (1887),  p.  166. 

'  Autobiography  of  William  B.  Setcard,  p.  241. 


1834]  SEWAED'S   COMPLACENCY  405 

shall  not  be  without  their  respect.  Believe  me,  there  is  no 
affectation  in  my  saying  that  I  would  not  now  exchange  the 
feelings  and  associations  of  the  vanquished  William  H.  Sew- 
ard for  the  victory  and  'spoils'  of  William  L,  Marcy."* 

'Autobiography  of  William  H.  Seward,  p.  241. 


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